Darius Milhaud: Tango des Fratellini, op. 58c from the ballet Le Boeuf sur le toit
Bohuslav Martinů: Eight Preludes, H. 181 (selection)
Igor Stravinsky: Piano-Rag-Music
George Gershwin: Song-Book for Piano (selection)
The ballet Le Boeuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof), originally conceived as incidental music for Charlie Chaplin’s silent comedies, was composed by Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) in 1919–1920, two years after his return from Brazil. The music brims with Brazilian folk melodies, rhythms of the tango, samba, and other Latin American dances. The piano piece Tango des Fratellini, later adapted from the ballet, was dedicated to the Fratellini brothers, a trio of clowns who performed at the Parisian Medrano Circus and were adored by the city’s intellectuals in the 1920s.
The atmosphere of interwar Paris also pervades Bohuslav Martinů’s (1890–1959) Eight Preludes. Written in 1929, probably on commission from the Parisian publisher Alphonse Leduc, the cycle was dedicated to his future wife Charlotte. These vividly expressive and technically brilliant pieces also incorporate the forms of blues and foxtrot.
Igor Stravinsky’s (1882–1971) Piano-Rag-Music (1919) reflects ragtime piano styles and jazz-band idioms, which the composer encountered soon after emigrating to Switzerland and France. Stravinsky dedicated the piece to his friend, the virtuoso pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
The American composer George Gershwin (1898–1937) compiled his Song-Book in the early 1930s at the request of publisher Bennett Cerf. From the hundreds of songs he had written by then, he selected his 18 favorites and created piano transcriptions for them. Blending influences of jazz, ragtime, and klezmer, Gershwin’s arrangements draw upon the rich heritage of both classical and popular piano traditions.
Text: Ondřej Pivoda
