Hommage à Chopin

Noturno

A la balada

Villa-Lobos was one of several distinguished composers commissioned by UNESCO to mark the hundredth anniversary of Chopin’s death. Unlike some of the other works first performed in the centenary concert in the Salle Gaveau in Paris on 3 October 1949, his Hommage à Chopin does not, however, represent an attempt to emulate Chopin’s style in any specific way. Both movements have Chopinesque titles and both are essentially romantic in character but, as a composer for piano, Villa-Lobos had more in common with Liszt than Chopin.

The bravura figuration in the short opening section of Noturno could derive from either composer but the harmonic shape of the theme rising below it and, above all, the sonorously melodious and deeply expressive left-hand part in the middle section irresistibly call Liszt to mind. The rather longer A la balada follows Chopin’s example in exposing its thematic material - a plaintive four-note motif and a wistful hint of Chopin’s Waltz in C sharp minor - to a variety of poetic adventures. Taken through a basically rondo-like in construction, these slender ideas meet particularly formidable opposition in a hugely stormy central episode but survive to resurface for extended development before the end.

The two movements are played without a break.