Playlist: Travels With Composers

Places and landscapes, both real and imagined, are a rich source of inspiration for composers, resulting in atmospheric and evocative music, some of which was actually written while the composers were travelling or on holiday…

Take a short tour with these piano pieces…

Edward Elgar: In Smyrna

Smyrna © Benh LIEU SONG/CC BY-SA 2.0

Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) was an Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. In Smyrna was inspired by a Mediterranean cruise the composer took in 1905.

Edward Elgar: In Smyrna (Peter Pettinger, piano)

Franz Liszt: Annees de pelerinage, 3rd year, S163/R10 – IV. Les jeux d’eau a la villa d’Este

Villa d’Este, Italy

The Villa d’Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. Liszt was a frequent guest of the acting cardinal there, and this piece, from the third year of his Annees de pelerinage, magically evokes the glittering fountains and the play of light on water. The piece inspired Ravel to write his Jeux d’eau.

Franz Liszt: Annees de pelerinage, 3rd year, S163/R10: IV. Les jeux d’eau a la villa d’Este (Garrick Ohlsson, piano)

Francis Poulenc: Napoli Suite pour le piano

Head to the southern part of Italy with Poulenc whose Napoli suite was composed in 1922 during a visit to Italy. The exuberant final movement evokes the bustle of the city of Naples.

Francis Poulenc: Napoli, FP 40 – III. Caprice italien (Gen Tomuro, piano)

Benjamin Britten: Holiday Diary

Composed in 1934, while Britten was living at home in Lowestoft on the east coast of England, Holiday Diary evokes the experience of the typical English seaside holiday – funfairs, sailing, warm, still nights, and bracing swims into the sea.

Benjamin Britten: Holiday Diary, Op. 5 – II. Sailing (Stephen Hough, piano)

Samuel Barber: Four Excursions, Op. 20

Crossing the Atlantic ocean to America, Barber’s ‘Excursions’ takes player and listener on a musical American road trip – from the fast-moving bustle of the big city as portrayed in the Boogie-Woogie first movement to the relaxed blues of the Deep South in the second movement, an uplifting American folksong in the third movement, and an exuberant, foot-stomping barn dance in fourth movement.

Samuel Barber: Excursions, Op. 20 – II. In slow blues tempo (Joanna MacGregor, piano)

Karen Tanaka: Northern Light

Northern Lights

Japanese composer Karen Tanaka evokes a sense of wonder on seeing the Northern Lights with repeated delicate arpeggios in the right hand overlaid with a simple melody.

Karen Tanaka: Children of Light – Northern Lights (Signe Bakke, piano)

Claude Debussy: L’isle Joyeuse

Composed in 1904 while Debussy was travelling with his lover Emma Bardac, L’isle Joyeuse is thought to be in part inspired by Watteau’s painting The Embarcation for Cythera, but also the coastal landscapes of the places where he and Emma were staying. It’s a vivid, sensuous piece, full of exuberance and joy, and a virtuosic challenge for the pianist!

Claude Debussy: L’isle joyeuse (Nikolai Lugansky, piano)