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The Virtual
Concert Hall
CONCERT 2
“Vasta per
aequora vecti”
The sea and the wind from classical literature to
piano music
PROGRAMME
Fabio Grasso Les alcyons de Corinthe
Letizia Michielon from Vox tibi, nn 2-3, Echo,
Oceanidi;
Claude Debussy …Les collines d’Anacapri, L’isle
joyeuse
Claude Debussy …Ce
qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata op. 31 n. 2 “Der Sturm”
Click on the titles in the right column to listen, or
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“Vasta per aequora vecti”, “transported
through the wide sea”, is a verse drawn from the Aeneis. This programme collects
works that recall in various way the light, the sounds, the mythology of the
sea landscapes described in the classical epic literature and in the
subsequent literary works that refer to this model. |
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Here’s the fragment of Antipatros from Where is your admirable beauty, o Dorian Where the crowns of your towers, where the ancient riches? The temples
of the gods and the palaces, your women and the immense crowd of your people? No trace of you
survives, o miserable! All devoured the destroying war. Only we Nereids, immortal daughters
of Ocean, remain to cry your sufferings, like alcyons. |
Fabio Grasso, piano |
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The
daughters of Ocean inspire also one of the pieces of the cycle Vox tibi of
Letizia Michielon, an hommage to some mythologic women, related to the
natural elements. Debussyan suggestions permeate these works, not casually,
since Debussy also loved these mythic figures living in the sea, as testified
for example by the Prelude Ondine. One of the most beautiful evocations of
them is in these verses of Aeschylos’ Prometheus bound: Prometheus: “O shining
Aether, you rapid winged winds, o sources of the rivers, and you immense
smile of the sea waves, and you Earth, universal mother, and you cosmic eye,
circle of the Sun, I call you, see how I, a god, am suffering by a god!” Choir of the daughters
of Ocean: “The sea waves stir up, the abyss in groaning, Ades’ dark cave
shivers, and the sources of the limpid rivers suffer for an aching grief”. |
From Vox
tibi Fabio Grasso, piano Claude
Debussy Prelude n. 8
2nd Book: …Ondine Fabio Grasso, piano |
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The
second Debussy’s Prelude recall a silent motion of sails on the sea waves,
while the images of joyful mediterranean isles with their bright colour
inspire both …Les collines d’Anacapri and L’isle joyeuse of Debussy. This
last is said to be a Greek isle, whether the isle of When Hermes came to the
far isle, he went to the great cave, in which lived the nymph with beautiful
locks. A great fire burned on the hearth. Far, citron and thuja smelled a
delicate perfume. She, inside, sang with beautiful voice and wove with the
golden spool. A luxuriant wood was all around, alders, poplars and odorous
cypresses. Wide-winged birds had there their nest … Around the cave a lush
vine, full of bunchs. Limpid water was flowing out from four close sources …
surrounded by flowery meadows. Even a god would have contemplated this place,
astonished, and rejoiced in his heart. |
Prelude n. 2
1st Book: …Voiles Fabio Grasso, piano Claude
Debussy Prelude n. 5 1st Book: …Les collines d'Anacapri Fabio Grasso, piano Claude
Debussy Fabio Grasso, piano |
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The
homeric poems and the Greek theatre were surely well-known to Shelley and
Shakespeare. We end the programme with two passages that certainly owe much
to the Greek literature, and show the stormy face of the sea. Shelley’s West
Wind has directly inspired Debussy for Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest. The
relation between Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 31 n. 2 and Shakespeare’s
Tempest is weaker – the composer was induced to mention the drama in
answering to persistent requests about possible literary references for this
Sonata, in which the inner stormy tumult deflagrating of the first movement
is only apparently tempered by the resigned atmosphere of the initial theme
(like a resigned motion of sea waves after the passage of a storm) of .the
final Allegretto, that with its thematic developments and strong dynamic
contrasts becomes soon a very unquiet, tormented movement. Thou (West Wind) on
whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion, Loose clouds like earth's
decaying leaves are shed, shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, Angels of rain and
lightning: there are spread on the blue surface of thine aery surge, like the
bright hair uplifted from the head of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim
verge of the horizon to the zenith's height, the locks of the approaching
storm. … Make me thy lyre,
even as the forest is: what if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult
of thy mighty harmonies will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, sweet
though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, my spirit! (SHELLEY) “I boarded the king's
ship; I flamed amazement .., and burn in many places … Jove's lightnings, the
precursors o' the dreadful thunder-claps … the fire and cracks Oggetto:f
sulphurous roaring the most mighty
Neptune seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble … his dread trident
shake.“ (SHAKESPEARE) |
Prélude n. 7
1st Book: ...Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest Fabio Grasso, piano Ludwig
van Beethoven Piano
Sonata op. 31 n. 2 “Der Sturm” 1. Largo –
Allegro 2. Adagio 3. Allegretto Fabio Grasso, piano |
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