Description
The 1st Piano Sonata op. 6/1 is the first major youth work by Martin Münch. Its complex genesis meant that the piece, written in 1976/77, was not premiered until January 2004 by Rainer Klaas as part of the Heidelberg Piano Week. Prior to this, the young composer had experimented with smaller piano forms with his pieces from childhood (subsequently numbered as "op. 0") and the "Anthill" op. 1/1, which was written around the same time. Exceptions to the short playing time were a sonatina in C major, originally planned as a 1st piano sonata, and the "Walzer auf die man nicht tanzen kann, bei- de from 1975. While the aforementioned "Ameisenhaufen" is linked to Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" in sound language and degree of difficulty, the present 1st piano sonata is more oriented towards Ravel's sonatina in the first movement. With echoes of J. S. Bach, Dvorak and Mussorgsky in the second movement and Rachmaninoff in the third, further models of the composer's youth appear.
In terms of the prevailing overall style, Martin Münch's 1st Piano Sonata is mainly located in the realm of musical impressionism, despite the tension between all the influences mentioned. Work on the development of a style of his own took place later, starting with the 2nd Piano Sonata. Sonata movement elements and rhapsodic interpolations alternate. Since its premiere, the composition, in all its varied diversity, has attracted occasional criticism in the concert hall ("immature pubertal effusions"), but mostly sympathy and approval.
The genesis of the piece is, as already mentioned, complex. The first movement was ready in manuscript in 1976 and Martin Münch, even before beginning work on his first piano concerto, started on the second part. This activity, however, could no longer be maintained after the absorbing occupation with the piano concerto, so that the manuscript of the second movement remained a fragment reaching up to bar 108. During the notation work in 2003, the composer decided not to achieve the shortened recapitulation and coda, which begin eight bars later, by means of a newly composed transition, but exclusively by using material already available. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of the youthful work without later additions. There was no third movement, but there was the first movement of a second piano concerto, which was begun in 1977 while the first was being composed, and which also reached shortly before the recapitulation. In 2003, Münch decided to complete the piano version of this torso with original parts in a manner analogous to the second movement and to rededicate it to the third movement of the first piano sonata. In 2009, this 3rd movement underwent a further revising original addition. Münch wrote his second piano concerto (which is completely different from this fragment) in 2004.