Amédée Méreaux (1802-1874) Etudes Op.63

[thalbergmad]

Indeed I have heard from Artur Cimirro that all 60 Etudes are in the bag and due to be released by Act Prealable on 3 CD's next year.

Anyone that has studied these will know what an achievement this is. Some push the mechanical bounderies further than Liszt or Alkan, albeit one could question the musical value of some. Excitement however is rarely far away.

Anyway, it will certainly be a must for me.

Thal

[Alan Howe]

Never heard of him! Here's some info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9d%C3%A9e_M%C3%A9reaux

[Alan Howe]

Artur Cimirro writes:

Not long ago I first heard about Amedée Méreaux (1802-1874) a composer which was friend of Chopin and who wrote, among other works, a set of 60 Etudes Op.63 which have been described by the pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin as: "(...) is just hair-raising and makes Alkan look like nothing".

I admit I have never been too impressed by the "difficulty" in Alkan's music, so the statement would not impress me normally.
                     
(Several people claim the difficulties of playing some Alkan pieces in the "right tempo" and it seems they never checked the real "right tempo" as written in the score - for example, as in "Le Preux", where "dans un bon mouvement" and "carrément" do not means "presto" in any sense!)

Anyway I have already decided to check these Mereaux pieces and had my own impressions: some are very beautiful pieces, some are big challenges, some are standard etudes and some very technical works.

Of course, as in any decent set of etudes, it is expected to have technically demanding pieces in its group, and Méreaux did a splendid job concerning the possibilities of hand movements in them. When you pay attention to the score you can notice there are some of the most virtuoso romantic pieces ever seen.

Often on internet, thanks to people who produce MIDIs using the score (which by the way is a nice way to promote unknown music when you are not able to play it), we can see people calling these pieces "inexpressive", "uninteressant" or "sub-zero" in musical terms – of course this superficial opinion is based in the lack of experience with the music and in some cases, like in Hamelin's opinion, it is the result of that famous 'The fox and the grapes' fable - "Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes."

The truth is that some of the etudes by Méreaux are so "unmusical" as are the famous and beloved Chopin's ones (Yes! what is the difference of them to Chopin's Op.10 No.1 or Op.10 No.2?) – the difference is: Méreaux is far harder to play.

It is normal to find pianists playing Chopin etudes now, mostly of them do this because it is a tradition, and of course I agree these etudes are wonderful, anyway they are a starting point (!) for a concert pianist, not the final one as some are promoting around.

No one is really a piano virtuoso playing Chopin etudes today. These works made history in its times and still are very useful, but the piano technique developed a lot after them and the pianists today are in most part "trained media monkeys" who lives from a marketing made long ago by the so called "golden age pianists" who often are not too related to the technical development of the piano but the ego development and the art of making money.

Despite of the long discussions one can start in these matters, the fact is that we have lazy artists and lazy public ruled by a market eager for easy money. The result is terrible for art and for the development of the instrument's technique - We are not far/safe from some medieval minds...

Méreaux is one of these several composer who can be enjoyed or not, but mostly he is not even recognized because of the already explained facts, and that is terrible.

When I received the challenge by my new friend Kenneth Derus about recording all Méreaux Etudes I was happy to finally have the chance to make justice to such Etudes and put them in the place they deserve, recorded in a CD where people can notice these are wonderful romantic Etudes which belongs to the greatest challenges of piano playing history.

Of course, the recording was made by a request using the Youchoose Music Project, anyway in agreement with Kenneth Derus, we decided to make few tracks available from time to time in the next months, and later (during 2018) the 3 CDs with the complete set (60 Etudes) will be published by Acte Prealable.

http://opusdissonus.com.br/mereaux.htm - contains link to performance of Etude Op.63, No.9 "Barcarolle".

[eschiss1]

this all seems written from the pov of pianists interested in difficulty. The reason this listener- who can't play Chopsticks- would rather hear Alkan's piano concerto and piano symphony than Chopin's etudes is because they're much more enthralling pieces. I do not -care- about the difficulty of the Méreaux (yes, I've heard of him, but am more curious to hear his chamber music actually)- if difficulty makes the music for your fingers, anyway, go with Sciarrino.

(BTW- edit: don't get me wrong. I find Chopin's etudes among his lesser works- that was not a swipe at Chopin.)

[Alan Howe]

I agree, Eric. The burning question, then, is whether the music's any good as music.

[thalbergmad]

I think they are a mixed bag musically. The 3 played by Katsaris certainly belong in the of musical value category. As a 3rd rate hack pianist I am interested in difficulty and in small doses I appreciate absurd mechanical displays that may not have much value musically.

To me that is a piece of the romantic jigsaw that makes the period so interesting.

[UnsungMasterpieces]

Yes! I have been waiting for this news for some time!
I first encountered some of his very difficult Études on YouTube and I they intrigued me from the start.
So for me you can imagine this is wonderful news!

[Alan Howe]

For me the issue will be musical interest, not mere technical difficulty.

[Double-A]

For me the issue will be musical interest, not mere technical difficulty.

I tend to agree.  And yet:  Showing off the skills of the soloist is the raison d'être of concertos as well as etudes/caprices.  It is what Mozart wrote his piano concertos for. 

It is not quite so easy to exactly define the relation between virtuosity and musicality.

[Alan Howe]

Showing off the skills of the soloist is the raison d'être of concertos as well as etudes/caprices

Well, that depends. With, say, Paganini's VCs - indeed. But with, say, Brahms' VC there's a much more satisfying balance between the parading of virtuosity and musical content. However, there surely comes a point at which the mere display of technical difficulty without significant compositional content quickly becomes boring. No?

And Mozart was a genius. So he could pull off both...

[eschiss1]

Re "It is what Mozart wrote his piano concertos for."

Erm...

While we can't read Mozart's mind and to avoid excessive discussion of this out-of-our etc etc statement:

See Girdlestone's book-length more-or-less refutation of the above claim.

Of course if it were true, Mozart's late concertos would realize his aims better and better- and they do- but they are not more pointlessly virtuosic, they tend to show more  and more interesting integration of orchestra and solo. (not my observation- more Girdlestone/Alfred Einstein/Cedric Thorpe Davie) (Thorpe Davie identifies a concerto problem, the need to write a work that's not a solo work with some pointless orchestral beeping (you're paying them money) and again not a symphony with only concertante (piano/violin/whatever) - eg Gade 5... to "earn" the name concerto if you like

[Double-A]

Well, that depends. With, say, Paganini's VCs - indeed. But with, say, Brahms' VC there's a much more satisfying balance between the parading of virtuosity and musical content. However, there surely comes a point at which the mere display of technical difficulty without significant compositional content quickly becomes boring. No?

You are making my point for me when you talk about balance:  The virtuosity is an essential element even of the Brahms (which is a extreme example)--the only VCs I know where that is not the case are the two by Bach--and even there you find double stop passages and bariolages.
BTW we don't want to be too down on Paganini, I at least enjoy his concertos and don't get bored (like say with Wieniawski).  He presents the virtuosity with phantasy and a knack for melody.

[Alan Howe]

You're right, of course. But where does Méreaux figure in all this? Is there any substance to his études at all?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes - at least as far as those that I have seen and heard (admittedly, not many). There is a tendency in some for them to be too long - and I have found this failing before in virtuoso etudes by some other composers which otherwise are of good quality and both melodically and harmonically interesting. For me, at least, some of Rubinstein's Virtuoso Etudes are interminable - the point could have been made in a quarter of the time, and we would all have gone away impressed and happy.

[thalbergmad]

I would advise anyone interested to check out the ones the Katsaris recorded. To my ears, there is much to be admired. There are some that are nocturnal, some very melodic and some that are pianistic stunts like his absurd but amusing cross hands etude that one young chap on the tube has a fair old bash at playing.

If you want genius listen to Chopin and Brahms for the thousanth time and if you don't like the occasional empty virtuoso display, then don't buy the Mereaux. If you want a mixed bag take a chance with Mereaux. If you like it, great and if you don't, at least you tried and could formulate your own opinion by listening to the music.

Thal