V. Novák – Pan, a Poem in Tones, Op. 43 (Maxián)

0:00 – Prologue 7:46 – Mountains 16:32 – Sea 25:40 – Forest 37:57 – Woman Novák has gifted himself with this gargantuan cycle for his 40th birthday in 1910 and the work was premiered shortly after by Václav Štěpán, an extraordinary musical figure of the early 20th century. However, Štěpán was perhaps not a pianist par excellence and Novák was disappointed by the premiere. Already while composing the piano version, he had doubts whether the piano is capable of bringing this complex music to life and he consequently arranged it for an orchestra. Given Pan’s unprecedented position in the literature, it is kind of unfortunate that it did not secure itself a more popular status. Václav Holzknecht believes one of the reasons is that Novák’s late romanticism led to his belated recognition, it was simply not as sought-after in his time on a worldwide scale, considering the vast variety of then modern art movements (Debussy, Schönberg, Stravinsky etc.). Thematically it is not as much connected to the mythological god, as it is Novák’s pantheistic reflection and summary of motives which have been most dear to him up to that point (also in each of the movements one could find a connection to some of his past important works: Mountains – In the Tatras; Sea – The Storm; Forest and Woman – Toman and the Wood Nymph, Eternal Longing. Nevertheless, Václav Štěpán hastens to point out that one cannot be too assuming, as the entities are portrayed differently. For example, in The Storm the sea is violent, while in Pan it is rippling and most importantly a part of a bigger whole). The work is tightly knit together by a set of tones F-C-G-D-A, which serves as a main theme of the whole work and at the same time all the themes of each separate movement are born out of it. Novák was attracted to these tones because of the latent pentatonic scale (F-G-A-C-D) which, according to his own words, „unifies all three tonal functions and presents a whole microcosm of harmony“. Prologue is basically a launching pad where all the themes are introduced briefly, only to be elaborated on in the respective following movements. The representation of the archetypes in Mountains, Sea and Forest is semi-impressionistic and Woman is a pianist’s nightmare because of its length, late position in the cycle, fast tempi (which make it hardly playable here and there) and recurring fugatos. Composer – Vítězslav Novák (1870-1949) Piano – František Maxián Uploads authorized by Supraphon, the sheet music is public domain. Czech piano music playlist –