Marcel Mihalovici: 'Epilogue' (no.3 from 'Trois Pièces Nocturnes' Op.63) for piano

Описание: Marcel Mihalovici (1898-1985) was a Rumanian composer of Jewish heritage who settled in Paris after the First World War. His friends included the composer Alexander Tansman and he is generally associated with French neoclassicism, though he was stylistically eclectic.

This nocturne - the final number of three included in his 'Trois Pièces Nocturnes' - is entitled 'Epilogue', and it follows 'Impromptu' and 'Rêve'. The opus was published by Heugel/Leduc in 1951. The first and second pieces are extraordinarily testing, not only to read, but also to play in the indicated tempo. The impromptu is a kind of capricious waltz, the second more of a nightmare than dream, cast in the form of a study. This epilogue is the most conventionally nocturnal of the three. The expressive falling motives which punctuate the phrases eventually build to a climax before subsiding.

To my knowledge this suite has never been recorded and probably rarely performed (unsurprising given the difficulties it poses). The idiom largely avoids tonal references but does not seem to employ Schoenbergian twelve tone technique. I would call the style 'expressionist', reminiscent occasionally of Stravinsky ('Rite of Spring' part II).