On Gabriel Pierné and his compositions for piano and orchestra

Background. The French composers’ creativity of the late XIX – first third of XX centuries is the admirable treasury of the world musical art. It is worth mentioning such remarkable and original artists as C. Debussy and M. Emmanuel, P. Dukas and E. Satie, A.Roussel and M.Ravel. The name of G. Pierné (1863–1937) can surely be added to this series of authors. But his oeuvre is still terra incognita for us. The thorough considerable researches about the author are not numerous. The monograph “Gabriel Pierné: musicien lorrain” by G. Masson was created in 1987, and the publication of the composer’s letters named as “Correspondance romaine” was published in 2005. In the 2000s, a lot of audio recordings of his best works were published, which testifies to the relevance of the author’s heritage and confirms the urgency of present topic of article. Objectives of this study is to focus researchers on G. Pierné’s personality and art, to consider his works for piano and symphonic orchestra – Fantasy-Ballet, Piano Concerto, Scherzo-Caprice, Symphonic Poem. Methods. The research is based on the historical biographical, the intonational, the comparative research methods. Results. C. Debussy, M. Ravel and composers of “Les Six” at their time outshined Pierné’s work. But years have passed and interest in the personality of this author has appeared. During his training in Paris Conservatory (1871–1882), G. Pierné achieved excellent results, having won in many student competitions. He studied composition in the class of J. Massenet (together with E. Chausson, G. Charpentier, G. Ropartz). Having won the competition for the Prix de Rome (1882), the young author was given the opportunity to live at Villa Medici (1883–1885). Spent time in Rome was one of the best episodes of his life. The first concert work by G. Pierné – Fantasy-Ballet (1885) for piano and orchestra was written there. The composition is based on the sequence of contrasting dancing episodes in the character of march, gallop, waltz, tarantella. It is significant that the ballet genre took pride of place in the work of G. Pierné later. The composer’s staying in Italy caused visibility, colorfulness, cheerfulness, feed activity, energy of images, using of genre motifs in FantasyBallet. The series of various episodes conveys a whimsical change of mood and resembles a sketches of impression. Returning to Paris in 1885, G. Pierné sought to strengthen his reputation as a soloist by entering the salon circles. At this time, he created many piano works, including the three-movement Piano Concerto c-moll (1886). This composition contains many dramatic moments which concentrated in the first and third movements of the cycle. However, as is often the case with French Romantic composers, such using of dramatic elements has a somewhat superficial, rhetorical character. The first movement is written in sonata form. The theme of the main subject (in c-moll), expounded by the piano octaves, is active and boisterous. And the secondary Es-dur subject is peaceful and lucid. There is the same entrancing serenity as in the lyrical theme of the E. Grieg’s Piano Concerto finale. In the first movement, the development is very short, and the recapitulation is abridged. It should be noted that G. Pierné refused to use the cadence of the soloist. The second movement is written in a three-part form with elements of variation and rondo. This light scherzo takes the listener away from the anxieties of previous movement. Every bar of this music, in which everything is made with elegant French taste, caresses the ear. The main theme, including the dotted rhythm, serves as a refrain that permeates the entire movement. The finale is distinguished by its developmental forcefulness and truly symphonic reach. So, the continuation of C. Saint-Saëns’s covenants is in the concentration of thematic material, the observableness of form, the rhetorical syllable, and rhythmic activity at the Pierné’s Piano Concerto. Scherzo-Caprice (1890) enriched the French miniature line. The image sphere of this opus is lucid lyrics, good-gentle jocosity, and solemnity. The melodic talent of the composer proved itself very convincing here. The theme of the waltz echoes the waltz episode from the Fantasy-Ballet in some details. Being written also in A-dur, it contains the upward melody moves with a passing VI# (fisis), and also diversions into the minor (cis-moll in Scherzo-Caprice, fis-moll in Fantasy-Ballet). At the turn of the century, the influence of C. Franck’s music was produced on the G. Pierné’s style. This is reflected in such works as the Symphonic Poem “L’An Mil” (1897), Violin Sonata (1900), oratorio “Saint François d’Assise” (1912), and Cello Sonata (1919). An appeal to the Symphonic Poem for piano and orchestra (1903) is also a clear sign of rapprochement with the late romantic branch (C. Franck, E. Сhausson). Here we see a departure of G. Pierné from the C. Saint-Saëns’s concert traditions, which he held before. In the Poem, such qualities as virtuosity, concert brilliance, and representativeness are somewhat leveled, which is caused with the narrative character of this work. Conclusions. During the “Renovation period” of French music, the piano and orchestra compositions experienced a real upsurge in its development. Composers began to turn more often not only to the Piano Concerto genre, but also to non-cyclic works – Fantasies, Poems, Rhapsodies, etc. G. Pierné contributed much to this branch along with C. Saint-Saëns, B. Godard, Ch.-M. Widor. In his Fantasy-Ballet, Piano Concerto, Scherzo-Caprice, we find the continuation of C. Saint-Saëns’s instrumental traditions. This is manifested in the moderation of the musical language, the normative character of harmonious thinking, the absolute clarity of discourse, concern for the relief of the melodic line. In the Symphonic Poem, contiguity with the musical aesthetics of С. Franck is revealed, which is reflected in harmony modulation shifts, appeal to polyphonic technique, differentiated and more powerful orchestration.