Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817 (c.1725)
I.	Allemande
II.	Courante
III.	Sarabande
IV.	Gavotte
V.	Polonaise
VI.	Menuet
VII.	Bourrée
VIII.	Gigue

Bach’s set of French Suites is typically dated to around 1722-25, and actually follows Italian conventions. The label French was added posthumously (its first recorded usage is in 1762) to distinguish this set from the English Suites, and was popularised by Bach’s biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel. The suite follows the convention of ‘Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Gigue’ with optional extra movements in between the latter two, of which this suite contains four. In fact, an alternative and even longer version exists in which the Allemande is preceded by the (very French) E major prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1.

The suite differentiates itself from the others (particularly 1-4 which were almost certainly composed closer to 1722) in several ways. The Allemande and Courante are characterised by running scales and arpeggios, and as such are more toccata-like than their denser, more contrapuntal counterparts of the earlier suites. These are followed by an extraordinarily wistful Sarabande, whose opening modulation to the relative minor leaves its mark on the entire dance: it remains in the minor or the subdominant for much of its duration, before a pleasant return to the tonic. The Gavotte, Polonaise, Bourrée and Minuet each briefly flesh out a single prevailing sentiment, before a more expansive and contrapuntally allusive Gigue rounds off the suite. 






Programme note © Elena CHIU 2013

J.S.Bach: French Suite No. 6, BWV 817

Performed and recorded in June 2013, London. 

Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928)
Piano Sonata No. 2, “Fire Sermon” (1970) 
I.	molto allegro
II. andante assai 
III. allegro brutale

The following is Rautavaara's description of this composition:

"Like many of my works, Piano Sonata No. 2, ‘The Fire Sermon’, written in 1970 derived its musical energy from its sub-title; the magic words 'The Fire Sermon' stuck in my mind, repeating themselves like a mantra.”

Rautavaara’s interest in building upon triads is a constant characteristic of his composition style. The first movement of this sonata is no exception, opening with a string of triads: F-major succeeded by E-minor, E-flat followed by F-sharp, A-flat by D-flat, and so on, to create the nervousness of the music in a very soft dynamic. This symmetrically increasing space between triads invites us to forget the magnetic poles of tonic and dominant, but instead hear these triads as self-contained entities that can interact in any number of ways.
Unlike Rautavaara’s First Sonata, a work imbued with mysticism and religious devotion, the Second seems to speak of the distress of constant struggle. But the struggle is a resolute one: the passagework of the opening movement is grounded by an extremely controlled and stately harmonic rhythm, which gives the movement a breadth in keeping with the Scandinavian tradition. Indeed, the movement is simultaneously rough and solid, wild and controlled, suggesting a landscape of hewn stone.

The second movement begins warmly, with a diatonic, evenly moving harmonic progression that remains by no means tonal. The structure of the movement plays off the fairly common trajectory from sweet harmonic stasis, through a dramatic central section and towards a crux, before a restatement of the soundworld of the opening. But Rautavaara’s progression differs in that the restatement leads to a second dramatic crux, and the movement closes in desolation.

The final movement opens with comparatively playful counterpoint in the lowest register of the keyboard; at moments it sounds like an ironic take on an hour of scales practice. The colossal and dramatic chords that haunted the first two movements return almost prematurely to put an end to this movement; but the increased force of these gestures suggests that from its outset, the entire sonata has been hurtling inevitably towards destruction.

Programme note © Elena CHIU 2013

Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Sonata No. 2,  "Fire Sermon"

'O Clap Your Hands' for SATB double choir

Recording from live performance 16 August 2013 by Singchronizers, Hong Kong.

Text:
O Clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.

O Clap Your Hands (2013)

Live Recorded performance

Transcribed by Sergei Rachmaninov (1874-1943)
Bach Violin Partita in E, BWV 1006 (1933)
 I. Preludio

This work is a masterclass in transcription, arrangement and harmonic innovation. The links to the previous work are obvious: key signature aside, the Prelude shares the suite’s toccata-like brilliance. The violin’s tight range concentrates the music into a clear trajectory, while the energetic figuration gives it a propulsive energy, and, in its translation to the piano, the original violin part becomes a kind of missile that shoots around the keyboard. 

The harmonic additions are largely added around the violin part, and it is in this that Rachmaninov’s Romantic harmony (not “conservative” in the derogatory sense) comes into its own. With its constant fluid motion and clearly delineated stretches of directed movement and languid stasis, the prelude takes on a Debussy-like quality, especially when played with a suitable lightness of touch.

In particular, Rachmaninov seizes the metric ambiguity in the first modulatory section. In this section, the fourth semiquaver of each set is distinguished by being lower in register and in its function as the dissonant note that causes the music to move. Rachmaninov elaborates this figuration throughout the prelude, giving it both a modern feel in its rhythmic destabilisation, but also unifying it with Bach’s model. 


Programme Note by E CHIU 

Bach/Rachmaninoff: Prelude from Violin Partita No. 3 BWV 1006

"Fantasia on Blessed Assurance" is the overture for Musical "This is My Story, This is My Song - The Life and Songs of Fanny Crosby". The work is commissioned by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Divinity School.
 
Date of Performances: 11.04.2015 and 12.04.2015 
Venue: Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Performer: Premiered by Miss Wong Kin Yu
 


"Fantasia on Blessed Assurance"  for Organ Solo - E CHIU (2015)

Singchronizers 10th Anniversary Concert - The Gift of Life

E. Chiu: Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd

Live performance
Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music
14 Feb 2012 

Prokofiev: Sonata No. 2 in D minor, iii: Andante

Listen to this beautiful solo piano work by the young British composer Adam Dickson. The piece is based on Chopin's well-known Ballade No.1 Op. 23 and is premiered by me at the Royal Academy of Music on 1 March 2013. 





Programme Note by Adam Dickson

'Reiterations' was written in response to a lecture on Chopin's Ballade in G minor, op. 23, given by Peter Maxwell Davies at the Royal Academy of Music in December 2012. Max's observation of time, in particular repetition, in op. 23 is the prime stimulus for my piece. With reference to the term 'ballade', Chopin manipulates time by repeating and transforming rhythmic ideas so as to evoke a narrative. This narrative is not definite.

The temporal construction of 'Reiterations' is gounded on repetition and literal 'reiteration' of rhythmic cells. The core rhythmic template is a rhythmic mode: short-short-long (Anapaest). The temporal architecture of 'Reiterations' is relative, so as to allow cells to reappear in different guises. Importantly, 'Reiterations' is an abstract and compact work' a reflection on the observation made by Max. 

'Reiterations' (2013) by Adam Dickson

London Premiere, Live Performance. 

Suite for Piano -  composed and performed by Elena Chiu
I. Salsa
II. Waltz   (5'05")
III. Tango (9'10'')

I believe that an effective composition should have familiar phrases and sentence structures as its backbone, and due to this I am attracted to music that has an angular frame, a Romantic flavour and a strong tonal base. Coherence of harmony and melody also supports rhythm, which is an essential aspect of this suite. As a person who used to tell people that I could not dance at all, I now regret I didn’t take any proper dancing lessons in my teenage years, but I now find my feet going bananas under my desk to the rhythm of my own compositions. But even more so, I wanted to write something that would make the piano itself dance. 


Suite for Piano (c.2013)

 Visit www.elenachiu.com for more info. 



Elena Chiu

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