âA stunning musician with a deep, engaging personality...in fact Stefania is an artist born to perform in front of an audienceâ Stefania Passamonte piano, London Duke's Hall 2nd August 2007 . Life Turning Point.

11 MP3 Songs in this album (65:33) !
Related styles: Classical: Piano solo, Classical: Programmatic music, Solo Instrumental

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LIFE TURNING POINT
Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein: âNow rejoy, dear Christian all, and let us leap with joy that we, confident and united, sing with pleasure and love of what God has given for us, and his sweet miracle; very dearly as he bought.â(Text of Luther). In 2006 researchers in Weimar, Germany, discovered manuscript copies of this Organ Choral backing it to 1700. In that period, at only 15 years old, Bach had to leave his brother' house (with whom he went to live after their mother's death) for the brother's growing family and started an independent new life in Luneburg. The joyful serendipty of the melody and the optimistic text chosen for this Choral clearly reflect a turning point of Bach's life full of hope and optimism.

Completely different turning point is marked by the Mozart Sonata K310 in A minor. During a long visits to Mannheim and Paris between September 1777 and January 1779, Mozart composed the Sonata K310 in A minor, only few month after the Violin Sonata in G major ( a short opera in two movements showing the light, playful character of a divertimento).
The death of Mozart's mother in July 1778 gave the Piano Sonata an intensity of feeling and drama that the Violin Sonata is lacking. Thanks to the insuccess of that tournee in Paris and the unexpected death of his mother, Mozart suddenly grew musically and personally, finding the way of finally detatching from the strong influence of his father.

The Moonlight Sonata was composed in 1801, approximately at the time when a thirty years old Beethoven noticed his deafness, and some scholars believe, he also lost his love. Liszt suggested the first movement represents his sadness; the second movement is like a flower between two abysses and the last one is his anger at his progressive deafness and the loss of his beloved lady.
The âMoonlightâ Sonata represents not only the âturning pointâ of Beethoven's personal and artistical life, but above all it is considered the âturning pointâ from the classical sonata by Haydn and Mozart to the new romantic forma-sonata. For the first time Beethoven broke the traditional clear divisions between a sonataâs movements in order to create an unbroken musical flow. Instead of the typical Allegro-Adagio-Allegro, the sonata starts with the most celebrated Adagio ever written by Beethoven, followed by a Trio full of German humour (see the unexpected sf in piano and pp passages), and finishes with a dramatic âmoto perpetuoâ used later only in the âTempestâ and âAppassionataâ sonatas.

Composed in 1844 at the age of 34, the Chopin Sonata Op.58 lies on the other side of the transition period considered pivotal in Chopinâs life. Completed in a period of tranquillity and artistic success, it is the largest of all of Chopinâs works for piano solo and represents the apotheosis of his creativity. The classical Forma-Sonata is reshaped by a symphonic theme developing in a polifonic flow towards a lyrical âcantilenaâ. Chopin's love for Bach (culminated in studying the famous Cherubini's Conterpoint Trattato in 1941) characterizes the entire Allegro Maestoso. This new polifonic taste and interest for the Fugue (visible as well in the last years of Beethoven's life) make this programme to conlude in a sort of a circle. The Finale, pervaded by a "galloping" rhythm, is a sort of â moto perpetuoâ similar to the Finale of the Beethoven's Sonata, and his considered a touchstone of the piano virtuosity.

Notes by Stefania Passamonte