Joseph Rackers - Piano Debut: J.S. Bach, Bartók, Ravel and Schumann (2012)

This recording contains four important solo keyboard works, each of which occupies a unique place in the genre in which it was conceived.

The Baroque keyboard fantasia was one of the freest forms of the time, generally featuring several contrasting sections, an improvisatory style and frequent, often sudden, changes of mood. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue is one of the boldest and most striking works in this genre, employing extensive dissonance and chromaticism that points forward to later composers. Likely written during Bach’s Cöthen period in the early 1720s, the Fantasy consists of three sections. The first contains dramatic and virtuosic writing based on figuration. The second section emulates the vocal recitative style often heard in Baroque opera and the third combines the two with virtuoso passages and recitative in alternation. The fugue is one of Bach’s longest and most difficult and is one of his freest approaches to fugue development among his many works. The fugue subject itself contains ten of the twelve chromatic pitches, leading many to wonder whether the title Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue refers to the intense chromaticism of the Fantasy or the subject of the Fugue - or possibly both.

Schumann’s Fantasy in C major was originally conceived as a single-movement work, an homage to Beethoven written to support the unveiling of a monument to the composer in Bonn. Schumann himself considered the first movement one of his finest works and wrote to Clara Wieck, his future wife, that it was “a deep lament for you”. Ms. Wieck, however, was more taken with the second movement of the work (added later along with the third movement), a massive, heroic march with virtuoso outer sections and one of the most difficult endings in the piano repertoire. The final movement represents one of Schumann’s poetic peaks, a large-scale structure full of beauty and atmosphere that evokes quiet and contemplation. This Fantasy, then, is an homage to both Beethoven and to Clara Wieck. This dual influence is most striking near the end of the first movement, when Schumann quotes a melody from a Beethoven song (No. 6 from the cycle An die ferne Geliebte) with the words “Take, then, these songs, that I to you, beloved, sang”.

Ravel’s fondness for the Viennese waltz is well known from a letter he wrote to Johann Strauss in 1906, stating: “You know of my deep sympathy for these wonderful rhythms, and that I value the joie de vivre expressed by the dance...” Ravel’s La Valse, however, combines fundamental elements of the Viennese waltz with technical display, harmonic dissonance, sudden contrasts and a broad structure that simmers with drama and emotion, leading Ravel to describe this work as “a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz” and “a fantastic, fatal whirling”. It began as a work for ballet, but became a popular concert piece for orchestra and Ravel created versions both for solo piano and two pianos, four hands. About the opening of La Valse, Ravel described the following in the introduction to the score: “Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo at letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855.”

Béla Bartók’s Piano Sonata was written in 1926 and fuses a percussive treatment of the piano, non- diatonic tonality and folk melodies and rhythms in a relentless display for the instrument. No other sonata at the time drew so heavily on folk influences while rigorously maintaining the traditional forms of individual movements and sonata structure as a whole. The first movement takes on a violent quality as tone clusters in the extreme bass register pound alongside outbursts of octaves and chords in the treble. The second movement is desolate, sparse and deeply powerful, utilizing chant-like motives that often consist of just one note. The third movement is an exuberant, celebratory dance teeming with rhythmic energy, register shifts, meter changes and sudden accents. The Sonata was premiered by Bartók himself in December, 1926 and was a showcase of his ability as a distinguished virtuoso pianist and composer. [ Joseph Rackers, December 2011]

Joseph Rackers has performed for enthusiastic audiences in major musical centers of the United States, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Spain and Ukraine. Performance highlights include the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, Central Park of Culture in Kiev, Shanghai and Sichuan Conservatories of Music and Yantai International Music Festival in China, Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, music festivals throughout Europe including Burgos International Music Festival, Varna International Masterclasses, Moulin d’Andé Arts Festival and Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival, Chernigoff Symphony Orchestra and Society of Composers International Conference, in addition to performances as soloist with orchestras, on concert series and at colleges and universities in every region of the United States. A Steinway Artist, Joseph Rackers holds the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate. His primary teachers were Natalya Antonova and Raymond Herbert with master classes with Julian Martin, Misha Dichter and Blanca Uribe, among others. Also active as a chamber musician, Rackers has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov-Rackers Piano Duo. The duo was awarded Second Prize at the Sixth Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists in 2005, the only national duo piano competition in the United States at the time. As advocates of modern repertoire for duo piano, they have given regional or national premieres of numerous works across the United States. Rackers is currently Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of South Carolina and serves on the faculty of the Southeastern Piano Festival and Burgos International Music Festival in Spain. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music and Hochstein Music School and has given master classes throughout the United States, Europe and China. He is active as an adjudicator of piano competitions across the United States, including the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in South Carolina.