Performing Form: A Dialogue between Performance and Analysis

Hugh Collins Rice; Pina Napolitano

doi:10.5450/EJM.22.2.2024.30

Hugh Collins Rice Trinity College Oxford University, Oriel College Oxford University
Pina Napolitano Conservatorio Tartini, Trieste, Italy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5450/EJM.22.2.2024.30

Keywords: Arnold Schoenberg, Op.33b, Op.23, analysis and performance

Abstract

What happens when a pianist who is not a trained musicologist, and a composer with a background in musical analysis, discuss the piano music of Schoenberg? In this article, Pina Napolitano and Hugh Collins Rice explore that dialogue.

Their main focus is the Klavierstück Op.33b. They discuss the relationship between the performance and analysis of key passages, and their impact on the perception of form. From this discussion moves to Op.33a and three of the Op.23 Klavierstücke.

The authors discover analysis and performance to provide intriguingly complementary and enriching perspectives. Passages which had clear analytical explanations were often problematic in performance; conversely music which was difficult to interpret analytically could be entirely natural for the performer. The authors conclude that these differences are not problematic, but combine to enhance their respective experiences of the music.

Author Biographies

Hugh Collins Rice, Trinity College Oxford University, Oriel College Oxford University

Hugh Collins Rice studied music at the Universities of Oxford and Sussex. He has taught undergraduates at Oxford University for many years and is also active as a composer. He has won a number of significant composition prizes and his music has been performed and broadcast across the British Isles and Europe by ensembles including the Hilliard Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, Jane Manning, Swingle Singers and Coull Quartet. Commercial recordings include a major collaboration with the medieval ensemble Mediva and a reduction of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto for chamber forces for the pianist Pina Napolitano.

Pina Napolitano, Conservatorio Tartini, Trieste, Italy

Debuting with Schoenberg's solo piano works, Pina Napolitano is acclaimed for her expressive and emotionally rich interpretations and has since released several albums, including "Elegy," "Brahms the Progressive," "Tempo e Tempi," and “Kammerkonzert," each earning critical acclaim for her insightful and nuanced playing. A grand-student of Michelangeli through her teacher Bruno Mezzena, she blends intellectual clarity with virtuosity. She has collaborated with numerous orchestras and is a piano professor at the "Tartini" Conservatory in Trieste. Napolitano is also a noted literary translator, holding degrees in Classical Philology and Slavistics, with a particular focus on the works of Mandel’štam and Cvetaeva.

Performing Form: A Dialogue between Performance and Analysis

Abstract

Author Biographies

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