Three Piano Pieces, "hommage à Alban Berg", op. 83 (1985)
I.
Fantasia 
beginning
II. Giocoso
III. Sostenuto
Première:
November 12, 1985, Paris, Fondation de l'Allemagne
Peter Sauermann
American
first performance: March 16, 1988, Berkeley, Berkeley Piano Club
Eileen
Klatzky
Duration: 11 Minutes
Publisher: N. Simrock Hamburg-London (Boosey & Hawkes) ED 5161 / ISMN M-2211-1572-0
 | | |
| I. | II. | III. |
The
composer's corrections to the edition printed by Simrock in October, 1995:
I.
Fantasia:
Bar 3: right hand: eighth note c-sharp'''', quarter
note c-sharp'''' instead of c-sharp'
III. Sostenuto:
Bar
47: right hand: grace notes: four thirty-second notes: b-flat' c' b-flat'
c' instead of two 32nd notes b-flat' c'
Bar 59: after the bar: comma
with fermata should be erased.
The
Three Piano Pieces, "hommage à Alban Berg", op. 83
were written during the Berg anniversary year 1985 and are an expression of my
veneration for this great composer.
In the pieces 1 and 3 (Fantasia
and Sostenuto), the letters in the name AlBAn BErG corresponding
to notes of the scale in German notation as well as some of Berg's preferred chord
structures provide the initial material. The 2nd piece (Giocoso)
is constructed completely from the four opening notes of his opera "Lulu".
Bertold Hummel
Analysis
Press
Musica 5/88
Hummel's visit
to Alban Berg has paid off. No copy, twelve-tone is recognisable but applied with
freedom and fourth-semitone-fourth is not just building material working in the
background but in every sense also a motif, audibly setting things in motion.
We hear echoes of Berg's emotionality and rhythmical variety, enriching Hummel's
sense of instrumental joie de vivre. A very inventive music which reaches its
audience.
Neue
Musikzeitung April/Mai 1988
Hummel
shows here - as in earlier piano works - that he knows the capabilities of the
instrument and can make use of these in a beautiful sounding, pianistic composition
which does without any fashionable manners of playing. The pieces remain within
the limits of medium technical difficulty and are ideal for study and teaching.