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Home , Joseph Haydn, String trio

VIRTUAL FESTIVAL #6 - Released July 24, 2020

Franz Schubert in B-flat Major, D. 471 Allegro Andante sostenuto [fragment] Tessa Lark / Cynthia Phelps / Ronald Thomas

Franz Joseph String Trio in , Op. 53, No. 1, Hob. XVI: 40 Allegretto ed innocente Presto Tessa Lark violin / Cynthia Phelps viola / Ronald Thomas cello

Sergei Prokofiev for Two in , Op. 56 Andante cantabile Allegro Commodo (quasi Allegretto) Allegro con brio Noah Bendix-Balgley violin / Karen Gomyo violin

Georges Enescu Légende for and Jeroen Berwaerts trumpet / Mariya Kim piano

Jacques Ibert Impromptu for Trumpet and Piano Jeroen Berwaerts trumpet / Mariya Kim piano

Dmitri Shostakovich Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano in E minor, Op. 67 Andante : Allegro con brio Largo Rondo: Allegretto Simone Porter violin / Edward Arron cello / Andrew Armstrong piano

Concert was originally scheduled for July 17, 2020 Franz (1797–1828) (1732–1809) String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 471 (1816) String Trio in G Major, Op. 53, No. 1, Most recent SCMS performance: Winter 2007 Hob. XVI: 40 (1784) SCMS premiere Mozart has long been considered the precocious incarnate, recently joined (or replaced) Around the onset of the Baroque era ca. 1600, by Mendelssohn following his bi-centennial birth adopted four-part harmony as the basic anniversary in 2009. But surely Franz Schubert rates texture of the major and minor scales that replaced a spot on the winner’s stand! He had been playing earlier Church modes. From that auspicious change (and writing) chamber since his pre-adolescent in music history, choral music was increasingly years, both at home and at the Convikt School, written for the familiar SATB division of labor— where he was a student under the watchful eye of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—and the same the posthumously much-maligned . principle was applied to purely instrumental music. Precious little Beethoven reached Schubert’s ears Given its time-proven usefulness by the middle of in those early and impressionable years; the models the , the universality of four-part writing were emphatically the “proven” greats, Haydn and led to the emerging string as the dominant Mozart, and as with his teenage (i.e., the format in . Composers simply six preceding the magnificent and wholly Romantic thought “naturally” in terms of four parts or “voices.” “Unfinished” of 1822) the ghosts of Compared to the vast body of string , which Wolfgang and Franz Joseph informed the textures continues virtually unabated to this day, precious and sound world of young Schubert. few pieces for string trio have emerged. As one might imagine, it’s a bit of a challenge to fit four-part Disarming and beguiling, this trio—probably the harmony into three stringed instruments, even with first and partial second movements of an intended such devices as double- and triple-stopping. (With a four-movement work—has enjoyed a comfortable keyboard, of course, such problems do not exist with place in the chamber literature, if closer to the wings ten independent fingers on tap.) than to center stage. If the spirits of his Viennese predecessors hover above, the natural lyricism is Haydn composed dozens of piano trios but precious Schubert’s authentic voice shining through this few string trios, specifically the three Op. 53 works modest but sweetly enticing miniature. As one might that are identical to piano , XVI: 40–42. expect from a preternaturally gifted musician familiar Scholars are uncertain which versions came first since early childhood with fluent string writing, the nor even if it was Haydn or another musician who Trio shows true accomplishment in deploying the made the for string trio. A gentle and three instruments. Beethoven and others before and good-natured Allegretto ed innocente in 6/8 fits the since have commented on the challenges posed in movement’s /character. Minor-key sections do scoring for this combination. In a real sense, string not depart much from the prevailing agreeableness. quartet is an easier task due to the convention of In the best sense, Haydn constantly departs from four-part harmony that has dominated writing since expectations of listeners, including these minor/ the 17th century. major alternations. The scintillating Presto moves quickly with occasional pauses and a willingness to change keys on a hairpin, including into the minor.

summer festival // “minds.” This energetic scherzo-like movement has a (1891–1953) less aggressive Trio but its cumulative trait is one of Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, fierceness. Op. 56 (1932) Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2017 The third movement, Commodo (quasi Allegretto), offers bold contrasts of tempo and sonority, the latter Alarmed by events attending the 1917 Revolution characteristic achieved through the use of mutes in Russia, Sergei Prokofiev left his homeland to on both violins. Here the music is delicately etched, pursue a dual career as pianist and composer in the sweetened by unforced sentiment. Occasional West. He spent 1918-1922 in the United States and dissonances add spice but do not lessen the traveled about Europe until he returned for a tour of comparative lyricism herein. the U.S.S.R. in 1927. Two years later a second tour followed, and yet another in 1932 by which time Allegro con brio neatly conveys its descriptive he was making preparations for an eventual and marking quite clearly, though this might not be permanent return to the land of his birth in 1936. apparent at the very beginning of the movement, which begins with a jaunty solo before being joined Before the 1932 visit Prokofiev, vacationing near by the partnering violin. Sparking dissonances St. Tropez, composed his Sonata in C Major for Two enliven things, but the music is engagingly positive, Violins for the Paris-based ensemble Triton (also even upbeat. Here, too, the violins are treated quite referred to as Tritone—the interval of a diminished independently, which creates a distinct “stereo” fifth/augment fourth in music, known in the Middle effect and facilitates unraveling the two lines. Near Ages and subsequently as the “devil in music”). the end, Prokofiev reprises thematic material from the opening movement. Prokofiev’s son Sviatoslav characterized the piece as “lyrical, playful, fantastic, and violent in turn.” By the early 1930s Prokofiev was beginning to jettison Georges Enescu the hard-edged hyper-dissonant style he had often (1881–1955) employed previously (e.g., Scythian Suite and Second Légende for Trumpet and Piano (1906) Symphony) in favor of a neo-Romantic melodic/ Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2013 harmonic vocabulary that would find full expression, for instance, in the rapturous slow movement of Enescu (often spelled Enesco, in accordance with his Second Violin of 1937. It is somewhat French usage) was a superb violinist (teacher of surprising that early critics found this music difficult Yehudi Menuhin and several other fine violinists), to fathom, perhaps because of the improvisatory excellent pianist, and a fine composer whose works are character of the first movement, even more so due to shamefully under-represented in concert—other than the assertive dissonances of the second movement, the ubiquitous and engaging Rumanian Rhapsodies, of marked Allegro. course. His ample talent expressed itself early, and led to fruitful years of study with, among others, Massenet The opening Andante cantabile begins with one and Fauré in Paris. His first published work, Poème violin intoning a long and serpentine melody, soon roumain, premiered in 1898 and put Rumania on the enriched by the second fiddle. Though the sonority map, musically speaking. is spare, the shape and lie comfortably in the ear. Enescu composed his brief single-movement Légende for Trumpet and Piano in homage to Merri Franquin, who Harsh chords initiate the acerbic and percussive served as professor of cornet at the Paris Conservatoire. Allegro that follows. The instruments engage in lively Less than much of the composer’s later music, which conversation by two ardent and largely independent drew from Hungarian and gypsy tradition, the accent

july 24, 2020 // program notes here is more akin to the French impressionism of Dmitri Shostakovich Massenet and Fauré. (1906–1975) Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano in E minor, The piece opens with a quiet and mildly dissonant Op. 67 (1944) introduction on the piano before the trumpet presents Most recent SCMS performance: Winter 2018 a low-lying lyrical theme of modest dynamics—in contrast to the traditional assertive/martial fashion Shostakovich was deeply saddened by the death often employed in primary thematic material for in 1944 of his long-time time friend and colleague trumpet works. As the movement progresses the music Ivan Sollertinsky. A distinguished and insightful critic, does, in fact, become increasingly animated in a series musicologist and director of the Leningrad Philharmonic, of brief episodes incorporating rapid chromatic scale- Sollertinsky in 1927 had ignited Shostakovich’s passion based figurations, triple tonguing and wide leaps, all for the music of Gustav Mahler, a spectral presence in testifying to Enescu’s intent in expanding the soloistic many of Shostakovich’s works. possibilities of the trumpet. Adding further to the timbral appeal of the piece the closing section employs “I owe all my education to him,” Shostakovich wrote a mute when reprising the trumpet’s opening theme. Sollertinsky’s widow. “It will be unbelievably hard for me to live without him...His passing is a bitter blow for me.” To pay tribute and exorcise his grief, Shostakovich Jacques Ibert decided to memorialize his friend in a —the (1890–1962) same form Tchaikovsky had adopted in his elegiac Impromptu for Trumpet and Piano (1950-51) tribute to his departed friend and mentor Nicholas SCMS premiere Rubinstein half a century earlier.

Jacques Ibert, son of a French businessman, wanted to The Trio formed quickly in Shostakovich’s heart and be an actor, and in his youth attended acting school. mind. At the work’s premiere the audience had trouble He also studied piano with his mother, and owing to integrating what they perceived as inconsistencies in his prodigious talent, began composing music in the the music. The sad and melancholy nature of much absence of any formal training. He served in the French of the piece is countered by sections that bear a navy during World War I, then studied composition with superficially cheerful, dance-like character—not unlike Paul Vidal and won the Prix de Rome in 1919 for his how Mahler often opposed moments of deep grief with cantata Le Poète de la fée. His technicolor orchestral manic parodies on popular ditties. score, Escales (“Ports of Call”) has remained a deservedly popular score that evokes lands far and near, A lugubrious fugal introduction initiates the opening and the celebrates humor and parody Andante, positing a theme eerily whistled in high in music. Both these early works ensured continued harmonics on the cello before assumption by the piano popularity even if few music lovers know much else by and muted violin. Other melodies of folkloric persuasion him. are added to the mix, and the music builds to a powerful climax before finally closing in introspective quietude. More than two decades after composing the Divertimento he wrote the brief Impromptu for Trumpet Marked Allegro con brio, a Scherzo follows, showing and Piano for the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Shostakovich at his most wickedly sardonic and in the Library of Congress. Though not on the cusp energetic. The dark irony of Mahler’s paces of the avant-garde, the angular piano introduction nervously on the sidelines. announced by a thumping sequence of repeated notes, yields to the increasingly jaunty and jazzy trumpet part, In startling contrast with the Scherzo, the emotional giving time to the brass instrument to quietly revel in heart of the Trio throbs in the Largo. Shostakovich cast sweet lyricism before resuming its virtuoso voice. this movement in the form of a passacaglia, a theme

summer festival // and variation form from the 17th-century in which a theme is presented in the bass and is repeated without change while the composer weaves variants above it. Shostakovich maintains a deeply mournful tone through five wrenching variations based on eight heavily weighted chords on the piano.

The concluding Rondo: Allegretto incorporates material extracted from the preceding movements, as well as tunes intended to evoke Jewish dance music, most likely a pointed and painful tribute to the great suffering brought by the Nazis as well as his own country’s long and shameful history of anti-Semitism. The Second Piano Trio fulfills its intended role as a memorial to a close friend while serving as a powerful commentary on the incalculable and unconscionable loss of life brought about by the darkest side of our human nature.

Program Notes by Steven Lowe

july 24, 2020 // program notes