Program:“Classical Smackdown”
    Teenage Felix Mendelssohn vs. Teenage Frederic Chopin  

 Program is subject to change

 Program Notes 

Notes provided by Frederic Chiu

This afternoon, vying for your attention and your vote, are two towering geniuses from the early 1800s: Felix Mendelssohn and Frédéric Chopin.

Round 1: Earliest pieces
Separated in age by only one year, Chopin and Mendelssohn were both recognized as musical prodigies who devoted their lives to music. (Coincidentally, they were both second among four children, with an older sister to look up to.) Their living circumstances were quite different, however. Mendelssohn’s family was well-regarded and well-off; his grandfather was a famous philosopher and his father, a banker. Chopin’s family was middle-class; his parents were music teachers who worked hard to make a decent living.  Although both Mendelssohn and Chopin received formal training from teachers with pedigrees, there was a big cultural difference between their hometowns of Hamburg and Warsaw.

Mendelssohn was exposed to great music, art, and literature, and he threw himself into the main traditions of high German culture. Beethoven was at the height of his fame during Mendelssohn’s childhood years and was known among family and friends. The death of this great composer was felt as a personal loss to Mendelssohn, and probably inspired the young composer to pick up the torch. Several of Mendelssohn’s earliest serious works were piano sonatas, symphonies, and fugues, including the Opus 105 Sonata, which he wrote in 1821 at the age of 12.

As for Chopin, he quickly exhausted the cultural offerings of Warsaw (he stopped piano lessons at age 12) and began integrating folk songs and dances into his piano experiments. In studying Chopin’s early compositions, one can assume that Chopin’s teachers focused more on keyboard technique than on the great works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Chopin’s early works display a tendency for technical experimentation and virtuosity, even as he explored musical elements of the local Polish culture. Many of his earliest pieces were polonaises, a form that he would develop in an unprecedented way later in his life.

Round 2: Major contributions
Mendelssohn’s Classical/Romantic style was established early on and stayed relatively intact throughout his life. His major contributions fell in line with the great traditions established by Beethoven. At age 16, he wrote masterpieces such as the String Octet and the incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. At 17, Mendelssohn produced the major piano sonata, Opus 6 in E Major, based on one of Beethoven’s last, enigmatic sonatas, which takes cues from the key, theme, and overall structure to create an homage to his great predecessor, all the while staying immediately recognizable as his own voice.

Chopin’s music evolved considerably during his short lifetime, and a major break came at the time of his emigration from Poland to Paris. The unique genius of his technical brilliance and folk flavor would meld and be reshaped into the great piano soliloquies that make up his legacy. His exploration of small forms—the mazurka, the polonaise, the nocturne, even the humble etude—all began in these early years, leading to his first experiments with bold lyricism and fusion of harmonies.

Round 3: Rondo vs. Rondeau
The Final Round confronts two of the masterpieces of both composers from their teen years. Mendelssohn’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso is a work that many young pianists attempt, with its perfect balance of slow/fast and expression/virtuosity.

The number four appears often in Chopin’s major works: four Ballades, four Scherzi, and four Impromtpus. We can add to that the four Rondeaux, the Rondeau Opus 73 in C Major being the most developed, good enough in Chopin’s eyes to merit an arrangement for two pianos as well as for solo piano. Some of the most intricate technical challenges in all of Chopin’s work are in this piece.

 About the Artist 

Frederic Chiu, pianist

Frederic Chiu has performed for audiences on five continents—for stages big and small—with appearances at such major venues as Lincoln Center in New York, The Kennedy Center in Washington, Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, and Mozarteum Argentino in Buenos Aires. Mr. Chiu brings vivid live piano experiences to audiences through musical collaborations with classical and non-classical friends alike, including Joshua Bell, Pierre Amoyal, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, jazz pianist Bob James, and storyteller David Gonzalez.

Mr. Chiu has built a legacy through his recorded works; his 30+ albums feature works by Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Ravel, and Rossini. Having recorded the complete piano works of Sergei Prokofiev, the pianist’s personal relationship with the Prokofiev family has solidified his reputation as a world-recognized advocate for the composer. Mr. Chiu’s discography also includes: Beethoven/Liszt Symphonies V and VII, “Hymns and Dervishes,” music of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann, Distant Voices: Music of Claude Debussy and Gao Ping, and Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano.

Mr. Chiu offers innovative programming with his “Classical Smackdown,” where composers face off in head-to-head comparisons, with listeners voting for their favorite composer: Debussy vs. Prokofiev, Bach vs. Glass, etc. Smackdown results, selected by the audience, can be found at ClassicalSmackdown.com. His re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet—The Choice, an immersive, interactive production of Prokofiev’s popular ballet, debuted in 2018. With his wife, Jeanine Esposito, Mr. Chiu co-created the arts non-profit, Beechwood Arts and Innovation, which explores artistic collaboration across genres, and the ability to create community using the arts and technology.

Mr. Chiu teaches at both Carnegie Mellon University and The Hartt School.

Mr. Chiu is a Yamaha Artist
Representative: Maria Guralnik, Sky Top Group