A Present View over Franz Liszt’s Piano Music
Lavinia Coman
After a thought of gratitude towards Leslie Howard, who offers us the Liszt’s complete piano work, recorded in 97 CDs, summarizing 120 hours of music, the author tries to give a global perspective of this enormous quantity of music. The main topics are: the Études; music impregnated with moments, scenes, elements from nature; music inspired by the poetry; the religious prevailing side of Liszt’s personality; the orchestral piano; the enthusiastic admirer of the opera; the powerful national feeling; the vocation for friendship and the tenderness of the family man. Finally, the author speaks about Liszt’s late piano music and presents his concept of pianistic technique. The conclusion is that the whole Lisztian piano music gives us an authentic image of his life and personality.
A Semiotic Approach to Enescu’s 3rd Sonata for piano and violin and Bartók’s 1st Sonata for violin and piano
Antigona Rădulescu
Both born 130 years ago, Béla Bartók and George Enescu are composers with many affinities. Their works reflect important mutations in musical language, aesthetics and style between the nineteenth and twentieth century. Following the semiotic perspective, the analysis of two of their works – an original synthesis of East-European traditional music and Western cultural dimensions – is connected with considerations about their sources of inspirations as well as their reception. The analysis encourages the correctness of the study of structural elements through their immediate association with expressive aspects, revealing an entire inner universe that the music of Enescu and Bartók allude to.
Mihail Jora: Unknown Files
Ioana Raluca Voicu-Arnăuțoiu
The composer Mihail Jora was not only a respected teacher but also an example of courage during the harshest years of the communist regime. As vice-president of the Composers’ Union he resisted the marginalisation of musicians on political criteria and opposed the authorities’ interference in music. As a result he was closely followed and demoted. His wife, sister of a pre-war foreign minister, was imprisoned. This article is based on documents from Mihail Jora’s surveillance file in the archive of the former secret police.
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