Amber No.9 - Scherzo [After Henry Litolff's Concerto Symphonique No.4 in D Minor, Op.102]

Henry Charles Litolff (1818 - 1891)

Like the piano concertos of Johannes Brahms, Henry Litolff composed "symphonies with obbligato piano". His fourth concerto symphonique is well known for it's scherzo. The opening cord of the work is quite ominous, but the rest of the opening movement is to some degree light-hearted.

The scherzo is indeed very attractive.

Overall, this work lacks the darker palette of the later romantic D-minor works.

There is something about the key of D Minor that intrigues me. It probes great depths. Something mysterious, sad, pensive and introspective. Above all, it wields great power!!!

Consider for instance what is probably the most famous work in that key: J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV565. Think of the power of this work in it's original form for organ, or in its' orchestral guise as arranged by Leopold Stokowski, or the piano transcriptions of Ferruccio Busoni or Carl Tausig. There is a sense of being propelled forward while listening to this music, not to mention the air of grandiosity that it evokes.

Some may say there is something valedictory about the key. After all, the last symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler are in that key. Moreover, they are all Ninth Symphonies. Arguably, each of these symphonies may be the "magnum opus" of its' creator.

Here is a curious fact... The third symphonies of BOTH Bruckner and Mahler are also in the key of D Minor. Curious indeed, given the similarly heavenly length of their symphonies and their obsession with Beethoven's Ninth.

And talking about "Magnum Opus", how about the magnificent and regrettably unfinished Requiem in D Minor, KV 626, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Unfinished, because he died before its' completion, leaving its' final rendering to a lesser musical mind.

Well, for those who fear that composing a work in D minor may define their end, they need not despair. Dimitri Shostakovich's great Fifth Symphony is also in that key, and he wrote a total of fifteen symphonies. He was smart enough to not write his ninth symphony in that key.

J. S. Bach may well have been the greatest composer of works in D Minor. Consider Partita No.2 in D Minor for Solo Violin (BWV 1004)... The first four movements of the work defy description, such is their beauty. And then you add on the finale, a chaconne...

Lasting sixteen minutes, this Chaconne in D minor is a masterpiece of the highest order and is often played as a "stand alone" in preference to the whole partita. Like the toccata and fugue in D minor, it has spawned several arrangements including a taxing study for Left-hand only by Johannes Brahms.

J. S. Bach's other contribution to the sound world of D Minor are no less impressive. Consider the attractive French Keyboard Suite, BWV 812. Consider the dignified sorrow of that Sarabande. Though just four minutes long, it is as moving as any of Bach's longer works. But Bach does not leave us in a state of loss. By means of the Minuet I, Minuet II and Gigue, he takes us a place far from our sorrows.

Bach's Cello Suite In D Minor, BWV 1008 is another of Bach's great contribution to the D Minor genre. Although not my favourite of the suites, it is a source of musical enjoyment as well.

J.S. Bach's D minor keyboard concerto, BWV 1052, has an opening movement that is probably the most radiant and least brooding of the keyboard concertos in this key. It is transparent in its' revelation of Bach's contrapuntal craft.

Here is a link to a hypnotic version of Glenn Gould playing this magnificent work:

What magnificent fingers!!!!!

Murray Perahia's recording with Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields rank among my favourite recordings in terms of how the piano playing is seamlessly assimilated with the playing of the orchestra and the propulsive momentum in the first movement.

Perahia, however, is unable to match Gould's diabolic digital dexterity.