Description
“Breathtaking”
Etude for both hands: to combine expression with speed.
For anyone who has overcome all the mechanical difficulties of the piano, expression combined with speed is the easiest, because of the imperfection of the instrument which never opposes more barriers than in the pieces of a slow movement, where the crown of art is indispensable to make the illusion of sustained sounds. Here the vivacity of the movement breaks down this difficulty, and leaves only that of driving from one end to the other with a gradually increasing heat, a piece whose agitated expression must produce the effect of an emotion that can only be qualified by the denomination of breathtaking. In this kind of music, almost all transitions must be from PIANO to FORTISSIMO, because the extreme agitation has few intermediate dynamics; but everything that is not FORTISSIMO, must not be collided. The octave steps of the bass will be conducted CRESCENDO, and finally we will spare resources to increase the heat of performance after the first motif is resumed: while playing the octaves of the bass with strength, we will try to bind them as much as we can, which would be impossible if the left hand contracted the slightest stiffness. (H. de Montgeroult)
(Bruno Robillard – 2006)
