PARK & BACH, a415 music
Sonatas for Pianoforte by Maria Hester Park (1760–1813)
and Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782)
Praise for Berensen's Mozart Album from early piano proponent Prof.Dr. Neal Peres da Costa
“With this recording Christopher Berensen reimagines Mozart’s sound world in very fresh and daring ways. The tonal scape of his 1790s square piano, itself offers something entirely different to the now familiar sound of the Viennese fortepiano in terms of colour, drama, and texture, a rare opportunity to experience Mozart as many would have in late eighteenth-century domestic and smaller settings. But, what is so remarkable about Berensen’s interpretations is his experimental use of period un-notated expressive practices—manual asynchrony, chordal arpeggiation, rhythm and tempo modifications including agogic accentuations, dynamics, accents, varied articulations and ornamentation—bringing his highly artistic personality to these works. His noticeable changes of tempo, for example, in the first movement of the A minor Sonata vividly draw out Mozart’s musical characters, and his elaborate and stylishly ornamented repeats demonstrate his deep understanding of compositional practice in Mozart’s era. Berensen pushes the boundaries in this recording, revealing an entirely new Mozart and dissolving the score-bound identity that often besets Mozart performances in our time. I recommend it most highly."
“With this recording Christopher Berensen reimagines Mozart’s sound world in very fresh and daring ways. The tonal scape of his 1790s square piano, itself offers something entirely different to the now familiar sound of the Viennese fortepiano in terms of colour, drama, and texture, a rare opportunity to experience Mozart as many would have in late eighteenth-century domestic and smaller settings. But, what is so remarkable about Berensen’s interpretations is his experimental use of period un-notated expressive practices—manual asynchrony, chordal arpeggiation, rhythm and tempo modifications including agogic accentuations, dynamics, accents, varied articulations and ornamentation—bringing his highly artistic personality to these works. His noticeable changes of tempo, for example, in the first movement of the A minor Sonata vividly draw out Mozart’s musical characters, and his elaborate and stylishly ornamented repeats demonstrate his deep understanding of compositional practice in Mozart’s era. Berensen pushes the boundaries in this recording, revealing an entirely new Mozart and dissolving the score-bound identity that often besets Mozart performances in our time. I recommend it most highly."
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Maria Hester Park (1760–1813) was one of a small number of women who made a name for themselves as musicians in Georgian England, and was especially unusual because, unlike peers such as Veronika Dusíková Cianchettini and Cecilia Maria Barthélemon, she was not born into a prominent musical family. We know very little about Park’s background; it is possible that she was an outlier in an otherwise genteel middle class family who could afford to give their daughter a musical education but never expected her to make her living by it.
Nevertheless, Park made her public concert debut in London 1782, performing a harpsichord concerto in the elegant Hanover Square Rooms that J. C. Bach had helped to establish as London’s premiere concert venue the previous decade. She soon abandoned public performance to focus on teaching and composition. Park was highly regarded in both capacities: she taught music to the daughters of the aristocracy, while her published compositions were praised by critics and purchased by hundreds of subscribers. |
Park’s compositions are fully embedded in the paradigms and paradoxes of pre-Romantic feminine musicality. Their style is graceful and pleasing, designed to charm rather than to persuade or dominate; and marked by an ever-shifting play of moods ranging from tender yearning to sprightly vivacity, with the occasional ominous storm cloud on the horizon. Park’s Sonata in C Major, op. 7 (1796) displays this mercuriality in its first and third movements, although it is particularly noticeable in the thematic contrasts of the rondo finale. The second movement is more restrained and elegant, inviting the performer to add their own tasteful ornamentation. Park’s Sonata Op. 2 no. 2 (c. 1786) has only two movements, which was not uncommon for English compositions at the time. The first movement is sweetly earnest while the second combines the vigour typical of a first movement with the playfulness of a finale.
Park’s Introduction and Waltz (1800) was published in the first wave of the dance’s popularity in England. The title may conjure up images of young amateur pianists accompanying informal dancing at home, but Park’s waltz is essentially a display piece, with the light texture of the opening expanding to include broken octaves, hand crossing, and a pitch range that encompasses almost the entire span of the most modern five-and-a-half octave keyboards.
Park’s compositions for piano and harpsichord reflect the tastes of her day, and in particular the London style of keyboard composition established by contemporaries such as Muzio Clementi. However, the foundations of that school were laid two decades earlier, when Johann Christian Bach took up residence in London in 1762. Bach’s Sonatas Op. 5 (1765) seem to look to past, present, and future all at once. The sinuous fugue at the heart of the C minor sonata (Op. 5 no. 6) displays the contrapuntal rigour of an older generation, while the hammer blows that open the D major sonata (Op. 5 no. 2) make effective use of the brilliant resonance of English instruments. But it is Bach’s galant melodicity that truly captures the elegance of the era, and that most strongly influenced the London composers who came after him.
© Angharad Davis, 2023
Order a physical copy: www.a415music.com.au
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon
Listen on Qobuz
Listen on Youtube
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Deezer
Park’s Introduction and Waltz (1800) was published in the first wave of the dance’s popularity in England. The title may conjure up images of young amateur pianists accompanying informal dancing at home, but Park’s waltz is essentially a display piece, with the light texture of the opening expanding to include broken octaves, hand crossing, and a pitch range that encompasses almost the entire span of the most modern five-and-a-half octave keyboards.
Park’s compositions for piano and harpsichord reflect the tastes of her day, and in particular the London style of keyboard composition established by contemporaries such as Muzio Clementi. However, the foundations of that school were laid two decades earlier, when Johann Christian Bach took up residence in London in 1762. Bach’s Sonatas Op. 5 (1765) seem to look to past, present, and future all at once. The sinuous fugue at the heart of the C minor sonata (Op. 5 no. 6) displays the contrapuntal rigour of an older generation, while the hammer blows that open the D major sonata (Op. 5 no. 2) make effective use of the brilliant resonance of English instruments. But it is Bach’s galant melodicity that truly captures the elegance of the era, and that most strongly influenced the London composers who came after him.
© Angharad Davis, 2023
Order a physical copy: www.a415music.com.au
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon
Listen on Qobuz
Listen on Youtube
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Deezer