February 13, 2019: 12pm
The first piece was very interesting as it started out with only one hand. As the second hand joined, I could hear the same melodic line repeated from one hand to the other which surprised me. Usually, when I listen to music, I don’t notice these sorts of things. The piece then moved to a slower section where both hands played together, creating harmonies. I also didn’t think that the piece would be so slow, as the toccata’s I’ve heard before are usually faster-paced and with a lot of movement. However, it picked up again halfway through. The left hand started with the theme and the right hand repeated the same as the left hand continued. This song was a great pick to start off the program as it pulled the audience in with it’s interesting beginning.
The second piece, a nocturne, began with a beautiful and slow melodic section. However, it changed to a really fast-paced arpeggio-like section, which surprised me and confused me at first. But as the song continued, the first melodic section fused with the faster section, creating a very aurally interesting piece. There was a guy sitting in front of me who fell asleep during this piece, which made me laugh. The piece had a really interesting shape to it and seemed to be always morphing as it went on. It seemed to me to be quite unregulated with its rhythms and melodic shape. Overall it is a song that I enjoyed. The slower sections were melodic and expressive, while the faster sections created intensity and complexity. It was cool to hear the mix of the two.
The third piece, Légende No. 2 “St-François de Paule: marchant sur les flots” seemed to tell a story to me. I felt like I heard water flowing and rushing around as the piece went on. It was like an experience with turmoil and fear while a sense of consistency was underlying the tension. The piece seemed to have an ongoing melody in one hand as the other created a lot of intensity and movement. Halfway through, it sounded to me like there was some sort of transformation to calmness. I felt as though it was like the feelings left behind by a sunset. Where there is an intensity of emotion as the sun is setting because it’s beautiful and breath-taking but after it’s gone, there’s a sense of contentment and reflection. That there was beauty and now, after enjoying it, it is time to return.
The last piece that Jalbert played was the Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 29 “After old notebooks.” I thought it a really interesting piece because the melody was beautiful but inter-dispersed was many a deep growl of bass. As I saw the title of the piece before I heard it, I felt like these were like the parts of the notebooks that were aged. The Andante assai section had a beautiful melody but kept these growls throughout the piece as well. It ended softly and gently but the growl was still there. The last movement, the Allegro con brio, ma non leggiere was very intense. I struggled to find a continuous melodic line at the beginning, but there were certain melodic lines that appeared here and there. It was such a fascinating piece. As the song continued, there was so much to hear that I was quite overwhelmed. However, because it was such a piece, it ended the program beautifully as an intense finale.