Garrick Ohlsson Program Guide | June 2023

in Rome but this was an important time for
the composer in gaining confidence with his
emerging unique musical voice. He had also
recently discovered the music of Wagner and
heard for the first time Javanese Gamelan,
and both experiences were to influence his
compositional development.
In his Two Poems, Scriabin moves away from
the Romantic gestures of the studies, creating a
more forward-looking exploration of melody,
texture and harmony which would evolve into
his mature style. Also around this time, we see
the development of his aesthetic to embrace a
mystical, transcendental conception of music.
While the first Poem is languid, rhythmically
fluid and melodically focused, the second is
an explosive, rhythmically driven piece full of
extrovert energy.
The Piano Sonata No. 5, written four years
later, takes these extreme moods even further.
This is an intensely volatile piece, languid and
dreamy one moment, then suddenly frenzied
and excited. Scriabin often juxtaposes these
states without preparation, resulting in a form
that feels episodic rather than organic but
never ceases to surprise and excite.
ANNOTATIONS BY MARK COUGHLAN © 2023
Debussy began writing the Suite bergamasque
around 1890 although it was not until 1905
that it was revised and published. The work
pays homage in part to the Baroque keyboard
music that Debussy greatly admired, especially
that of Couperin. The opening Prélude has an
improvisatory quality alternating between
bold and elegant. The following Menuet
has a slightly wistful character, playful and
delicate, its vigorous dance rhythms somewhat
restrained. Clair de lune is a work of ethereal
beauty and one of the most celebrated of all
piano pieces with its ravishing textures and
seductive harmonies. The final Passepied
bubbles along to the gently driving left-hand
rhythm, drawing this charming set to a close.
Program 2
In the late 1880s Claude Debussy returned to
Paris having spent a couple of unfulfilling years
at the Villa Medici in Rome, a residency that
resulted from his winning the prestigious Prix
de Rome in 1884. He was disappointed with the
company, the food and the accommodation
Samuel Barber is regarded as one of
America’s finest composers. Born in 1910 into
a musical family, he studied composition,
voice and piano and for a number of years
was a student at the celebrated Curtis Institute
in Philadelphia. He decided early on that
music would be his chosen career, writing to
his mother at the age of nine to declare his
intention to become a composer and asking
her not to force him to play football. By the age
of seven he had written his first piano piece,
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