KALICHSTEIN-LAREDO- ROBINSON TRIO

Thursday
16
june
kalichstein-laredorobinson trio
Joseph Kalichstein, piano
Jaime Laredo, violin
Sharon Robinson, cello
8 PM
GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY SUSAN GRAY AND ALEC DINGEE
TRIO IN B-FLAT MAJOR FOR PIANO, VIOLIN, AND CELLO, OP. 11
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Allegro con brio
Adagio
Theme and Nine Variations on “Pria ch’io l'impegno”: Allegretto
TRIO NO. 2 IN E MINOR, OP. 67
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Andante
Allegro con brio
Largo
Allegretto
:: intermission ::
PIANO TRIO NO. 2 IN C MAJOR, OP. 87
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Allegro
Andante con moto
Scherzo: Presto
Finale: Allegro giocoso
35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 31
WEEK 3
the program
TRIO IN B-FLAT MAJOR FOR PIANO, VIOLIN, AND CELLO, OP. 11
Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, December 16, 1770; d. Vienna, March 26, 1827)
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
Probably composed 1796-97; 21 minutes
Historical evidence suggests that Beethoven wrote the Piano Trio in B-flat major for the
clarinet virtuoso Joseph Beer (1744-1812). The key of the piece supports the supposition,
since it would have been appropriate and comfortable for the B-flat clarinet, which had not
as yet undergone the technical improvements of the Boehm system of clarinet key-work.
Upon publication in 1798, either Beethoven or his Viennese publisher, Mollo & Co., prepared
an alternate violin part—nearly identical to the clarinet version—should a standard piano
trio ensemble want to perform it. Beethoven dedicated the work to a prominent patron of the
musical arts (she had supported Gluck, Haydn, and Mozart), Countess Maria Wilhelmine von
Thun und Hohenstein (1744-1800), whom he met through his aristocratic Viennese friends—
the Lichnowsky family.
For the last movement’s variations, Beethoven took the theme from a two-act comic opera
by Joseph Weigl, L’amor marinaro [The Corsair, or Love among Seafarers]. The tune was an
aria, “Pria ch’io l’impegno” [Before what I intended] that had found great popularity around
Vienna at the time. Composers had used it as an air for dance music—even Paganini used it
as the basis for a violin “Sonata con Variazioni” in later years.
Following the Trio’s publication, a critic in the widely read music journal the Allgemeine
Musikalische Zeitung [AMZ] complimented Beethoven on his newly found common touch:
The clarinet virtuoso Joseph
Beer (1744-1812) was
known throughout Europe
and Russia, not only as a
touring concert artist, but
also as a resident musician
at the courts of the Duke of
Orléans and of Catherine
the Great in St. Petersburg.
The last years of his life,
from 1792 on, he spent
as a member of the Royal
Prussian Orchestra in
Potsdam. Beethoven
probably wrote the B-flat
Major Trio for him.
(22 May 1799) This Trio which is in places not easy, but which flows more smoothly
than some other works of its composer, makes a good ensemble effect with the
accompaniment played on a fortepiano. This composer, with his uncommon
understanding of harmony and his love of profound expression, would give us a great
deal of value, leaving the insipid efforts of many a celebrated composer far behind,
if he would only write always in a more natural rather than far-fetched manner.
Despite the AMZ’s critical approval of his “natural” manner, Beethoven himself is said to
have regretted basing his variations upon this theme. It smacked too much of popular taste.
This aspect of the work gave rise to a common nickname for the Op. 11 piece, which is
sometimes labeled the “Gassenhauer Trio.” The word “Gasse” is German for “street,”
or “alley,” and the term “Gassenhauer” can be roughly translated as “pop tune.”
In 1800, one of those curious “piano contests,” which seemed to amuse people to no end in
that era, took place at an evening musicale at the home of Beethoven’s patron, Count Fries.
Beethoven was challenged by Daniel Steibelt (1765-1823), a composer
“…This composer, with his uncommon and pianist who was itching to take on the great young Viennese
virtuoso. Beethoven’s reputation as an improvisatory pianist could be
understanding of harmony and
likened to such jazz artists as Art Tatum or Keith Jarrett two centuries
his love of profound expression,
later. In the event, Beethoven’s performance in this Piano Trio, Opus 11,
would give us a great deal of value,
so daunted Steibelt that he conceded defeat.
leaving the insipid efforts of many a
celebrated composer far behind, if
he would only write always in a
more natural rather than
far-fetched manner.”
32 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Poor Herr Steibelt, to have been routed by such a charming work. As
the music journal critic suggested, Opus 11 is an unpretentious Trio,
engaging and entertaining for performers and listeners. The nine
variations on Weigl’s theme are playful, not intimidating. It is likely that
on that occasion, Beethoven gave the improvisations some extra “oomph.”
TRIO NO. 2 IN E MINOR, OP. 67
Dmitri Shostakovich (b. Saint Petersburg, September 25, 1906; d. Moscow, August 9, 1975)
Composed 1944; 29 minutes
Shostakovich had already begun writing the Trio No. 2 when he learned of the sudden death,
on February 11, 1944, of his close friend, the critic Ivan Sollertinsky. A music professor at the
Leningrad Conservatory and the artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic, Sollertinsky
had died of a sudden heart attack. “I have no words with which to express the pain that racks
my entire being,” Shostakovich wrote to his friend Isaak Glikman. “May his memorial be our
abiding love for him, and our faith in the inspired talent and phenomenal love for the art of
music to which he devoted his matchless life…” The grief-stricken Shostakovich dedicated
the work to his friend’s memory.
The cello begins with a lonely statement from the upper reaches of the instrument’s harmonics.
Inconsolable, it continues its eerie keening as the violin and piano begin to speak. Slowly
they make contact. In a quickened tempo, the piano introduces the main theme, with musical
topics that they can all engage in. The conversation is moody, ranging from a folk-like
merriness to simmering anger.
Dmitri Shostakovich was
the pianist in the first
performance of his Piano
Trio No. 2 on November
14, 1944, in Leningrad.
The violinist Dmitri
Tsiganov (of the esteemed
Beethoven Quartet) and
the cellist Sergei Shirinsky
completed the ensemble.
Shifting to F-sharp major, the second movement is one of those hurtling, relentlessly driving
Allegros that Shostakovich mastered so cannily. It is a rude Scherzo, with a milder Trio
section in G major. The Scherzo stops abruptly, throwing the listener directly into the path
of eight dark piano chords, the beginning of the Largo, a funereal movement in B-flat minor.
Shostakovich sets the murky, anguished growl of these painful chords as a passacaglia base
upon which the other instruments perform. The strings speak calmly, then urgently, while
the piano continues the incessant tolling of its bleak thoughts. The movement exhausts itself
as the strings drift away over the final dark chord.
The final movement, created from real and invented Jewish melodies, cries and mocks,
dances and flails about, sometimes anxious, sometimes violent, always harrowing. The
jaunty rhythms provide the thinnest of disguises for this rattling dance of death.* It finally
bursts forth blatantly in all its terror. The piano spews forth cascading, rippling arpeggios,
and gradually the trio of instruments whimpers to a pause. Fragments of the mocking dance
appear briefly. The piano remembers its eight chords, and tries them out once again before
all the voices die.
In August 1975 the slow movement of this Piano Trio was played as part of the memorial
services accorded Shostakovich when his body was laid out in the Grand Hall of the Moscow
Conservatory.
*By the winter of 1944, word of the Nazi death-camp horrors had begun to circulate. Shostakovich regularly
transferred into his compositions deeply held feelings about social and political issues. One can safely
imagine this terrible dance of death not only as a private expression of grief over his dear friend’s premature
passing, but more universally, as a despairing reaction against the unspeakable mass human tortures being
exposed on the Western front.
35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 33
PIANO TRIO NO. 2 IN C MAJOR, OP. 87
Johannes Brahms (b. Hamburg, 1833; d. Vienna, April 1897)
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
Composed 1880, 1882; 30 minutes
Over the decades of his residency in Vienna, from 1862 until his death in 1897, Brahms made
a habit of spending his summers in a resort area where he might compose music in rural
tranquility. He would rent rooms and enjoy the pleasures of uninterrupted concentration
in the morning, followed by relaxation in the evening. He preferred that the village be near
friends and acquaintances, either permanent residents or summer vacationers, and he also
enjoyed having a beer and a cigar with local residents. Disciplined in his habits, Brahms
excelled at shutting out the world when composing, and he moved easily into sociability
when he had completed his day’s work.
In the case of the Piano Trio in C major, the second of his three works in that genre, Brahms
began composition in the Vienna winter season of 1880-81, and completed it in June 1882 in
the Austrian village of Bad Ischl, in the Salzkammergut. The first performance of the work
occurred two months later, in an intimate social setting. Brahms’s good friend Ignaz Brüll
(1846-1907), a fine pianist and composer, was on the piano bench, giving the composer an
opportunity to enjoy his new composition as a member of the private audience. Brahms seems
to have been pleased at what he heard, for when he submitted the work to his publisher, his
accompanying letter declared, “You have not yet had such a beautiful trio from me and very
likely have not published its equal in the last ten years.” This was a remarkable encomium
from a man who regularly destroyed his manuscripts as unworthy.
The first public performance of the C-major Trio took place in Frankfurt that winter (1882),
with Brahms himself at the piano. The violinist Hugo Heermann and the cellist Valentin
Müller completed the trio.
This monument stands in
Bad Ischl, Austria, as a
tribute to Johannes Brahms,
who spent twelve summers in
that resort town, composing
by day and enjoying the
relaxed social life of a
vacationer when his day’s
work was done.
The sweeping opening theme of the Trio is announced by the strings, who fairly sweep the
piano into their drama. Even as the opening bars relax into a sweet, lyrical second theme,
the piano begins to assert itself. Despite moments of introspection, the energy of the
movement never abates, and it concludes with a coda in which the dramatic material of the
opening returns to reinforce the strength of the ending.
The Andante con moto comprises a beautiful theme and five variations, a form in which
Brahms frequently demonstrated his ingenious creative imagination, whether in scores for
piano alone or full orchestra. Here in this chamber ensemble, the main theme is powerful
and the variations suitably substantial. The rhythmic figure of a sixteenth note followed by a
dotted eighth note (a so-called “Scotch snap”), and its slower variant, the combination of a
fast note followed by a slow note, play a prominent role.
The Scherzo sends all three instruments scampering nervously about, with the piano
particularly haunted by pursuing demons. The glorious Trio emerges briefly, triumphantly,
only to be subsumed again by the mysterious fluttering that completes the movement the
way it began.
The piano continues with nervous flights in the opening of the final movement, setting up a
cheerful, sunny Finale to the Trio. While pouring out a profusion of themes, Brahms lightens
the drama that had infused the opening of the work. He teases with moments of tension, but
as a whole, the music lives up to Brahms’s heading, Allegro giocoso, and concludes the
whole business with C-major elan.
34 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM