Graduate recital in piano: solo and concerto

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 88:53 in lengthHandel's Suite In G Minor (G250-255) provides an example of excellent baroque keyboard music. There are six movements in this suite. The first, entitled Ouverture, is reminiscent of the French Overture style of Jean Baptiste Lully, characterized by doubledotted rhythms and stately tempo. It breaks into a fughetta, with three entrances of subjects and answers. The latter part resembles an organ fantasia, with the movement coming to rest in its original Adagio tempo. The second and third movements are titled 'Andante' and 'Allegro.' These movements serve as an allemande and courante. Both movements utilize a two- part invention style with numerous points of imitation and modulations to the relative major. The Sarabande, with its characteristic triple meter and long second beat, uses a three- voice texture and maintains a steady, pulsing beat. The lively Gigue dances lightly with rich counterpoint and sequencing passages, in sharp contrast to the final movement, a dramatic Passacaille. It is a harmonic ground, which passes through numerous moods and characters, steadily building to a monumental climax culminating on a large full-voiced tonic chord. Beethoven's two-movement, Sonata In E Minor, Op. 90, was described by the composer as "a struggle between the head and heart," followed by "a conversation with the beloved." The struggle in the first movement is suggested by the constant oscillation between minor and major keys, even within themes. Though lyrical, the first movement presents complicated figures for the left hand, and with its truncated development section seems rather short. This is especially apparent in comparison to the grand second movement, which suggests the disregard of time which love represents. This seven- part rondo is in E major, in contrast to the restless E minor of the first movement. Its omnipresent cantabile theme sings effortlessly in various keys and registers. Aaron Copland's Passacaglia is an early work, with eight variations, which Copland composed during his studies with Nadia Boulanger. The composition's eight-bar bass undergoes chromatic variations in a style similar to the music of Caesar Franck. Some variations treat the theme melodically, and the fifth variation includes a retrograde statement of the theme in B-flat minor. (See more in text.