- Composer: Samuel Osmond Barber II (9 March 1910 -- 23 January 1981)
- Performer: Terence Judd
- Year of recording: 1977
Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26, written in 1949.
00:00 - I. Allegro energico
07:14 - II. Allegro vivace e leggero
09:17 - III. Adagio mesto
14:19 - IV. Fuga: Allegro con spirito
In 1950, the League of Composers, a society aimed at promoting new American works, met for the twenty-fifth anniversary of its inception. Barber set to work writing a piano sonata for the occasion, and requested Vladimir Horowitz perform it. His demands were met, and the work was received with overwhelming critical acclaim.
Though extremely difficult to execute, the sonata is much more than a virtuosic showpiece. Barber integrated many 20th century musical ideas into the sonata, including extended chromaticism and tone rows.
- The first movement begins with a raucous theme, presented in both clefs. Barber's unique use of tone row patterns is immediately prevalent, and it is through these patterns that the contrapuntal and thematic material is developed. The movement ends like it begins, rather abruptly.
- The second movement serves somewhat as a scherzo and is far more tonally centered than the first. The opening motif is repeated throughout the entire movement in a variety of patterns and keys, often shifting semi-tonally. Almost as effortlessly as it starts, the second movement drifts off into the third with a high arpeggio.
- Like the first movement, the thematic material in the third is presented through tone rows and chromatic figures. The third movement builds up tension through its use of highly dissonant chord progressions, and is much darker than the second.
- The final movement is an intense fugue, utilizing a jarring, simplistic theme throughout. Though technically a four-voice fugue, certain passages introduce as many as six voices. The fugue is very difficult to perform, and ends bombastically.
This was recorded only 2 years before Terence Judd's tragic early death in 1979.