|
Our 2008--2009
Past Seasons: |
PROGRAM NOTESBeethoven commenced the composition of Piano Trios, Opus 1, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in 1791 and 1792, while he was living and studying in Bonn, the city of his birthplace. Beethoven had by then acquired a considerable reputation as a piano virtuoso, with a particular talent for extemporization, and most of his early published works were for the piano, alone or with other instruments. The piano trios were revised and completed after his move to Vienna in 1792 and first performed by Beethoven with violinist, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, and cellist, Anton Kraft, at the Viennese residence of Prince Carl Lichnowsky, one of his earliest patrons in Vienna, to whom they were dedicated. Present at this performance were many members of the musical elite of Vienna as well as Franz Joseph Haydn with whom Beethoven had begun studying upon his move to Vienna. Beethoven withheld publication of these trios until 1795, reputedly to wait for word of mouth of their merit to provide a market for the printed music. These trios were included in what is known as Beethoven's first creative period extending into the early 1800s and were characterized by continuation of the craftsmanship and compositional techniques of 18th century Classical music. Beethoven was a transitional figure, and his later music marked a division between the Classical period of the 18th century, exemplified by the music of Haydn and Mozart and the Romantic music of the 19th century. Examples of Beethoven's originality and departure from Classical composition abound throughout the three trios. The use of repetitive motives, the expansion of the harmonic scheme and sudden modulations from the original key in which the trios are written established Beethoven as an imaginative and powerful composer.
SHOSTAKOVICH. Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67 Shostakovich, along with his older contemporaries, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, represents the culmination of 20th century Russian music. His style is marked by humor, meditative introspection and declamatory grandeur. He worked quickly, often altering and re-writing compositions to conform his writing style to the prevailing bureaucratic demands of the day. Musicologists disagree about Shostakovich's ability to overcome the limitations of socialist realism, but Shostakovich himself believed he composed without compromising his integrity and without inhibiting his personal musical expression. As a creative artist, his music depicts in an epic way the anguish of the war years, especially in his larger works, as well as his personal private emotion in the smaller chamber works. Living relatively well under the patronage of the socialist government, he accepted the government's principle of 'paternal concern' for the arts, though he disliked bureaucratic meddling in artistic matters. He wrote in all musical genres, and his works include 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets, operas, 36 film scores, choral works and song cycles. The brooding mood of the opening Andante reflects Shostakovich's sense of personal loss and the tragic events of that time. The piano writing is sparse and transparent with the eerie and strangely effective color created by the cello playing unaccompanied harmonics at the highest end of its range, and the violin playing muted at a much lower altitude. A delicate Russian melody sings mournfully above. The Scherzo is rhythmically relentless, wild and sparkling. The third and fourth movements are linked, separated by ominous staccato notes in the piano. The Largo is cast as a poignant passacaglia, but the constantly recurring element is not a melody, but an eight-bar chordal progression. This leads to the danse macabre-like mood of the final movement which builds to a frenzy, containing some of the most clearly identifiable Jewish folk material of the work. The Trio concludes with cascading piano figuration and reminiscences of fragments from the opening Andante and the piano chords from the passacaglia.
DVORAK. Piano Trio in E minor, Opus 90, "Dumky" Dvorak's Piano Trio Opus 90 is a favorite in the piano trio literature. Composed from November 1890 until February 1891, it offers a succession of sharply contrasted moods, sustained by undisguised folk music. The nickname derives from the Ukrainian dumka (plural: dumky), a melancholy lament in ABA (slow-fast-slow) form. Structurally intriguing, Dvorak's Op. 90 was a musical experiment. Rather than composing in the sonata and rondo forms of the traditional piano trio, he cast the "Dumky" in a chain form of six parts. Clemens Romijn notes that while the musical structure appears rhapsodic, it is clearly organized. The first three dumky form a group, each flowing into the next one without pause. The three remaining dumky are separated by rests or fermatas. The elegiac fourth dumka constitutes a slow movement of sorts, the whirlwind fifth is like a scherzo, and the sixth resembles a rondo, concluding the chain with a return to the opening mood and theme of the first dumka.
|