IANGIC VIA-131 ryx\E veNERFI611-) (CAE- P. Tevt.u.rel Adagio A I;;; Violin° viaiwo if aal 5112.7.6 WA. vn. 101610.) (KS Mau Ouvettutcu-tragtmnt 0) 511 our money grows like magic at the THE DIME SAVINGS BANK OF NEW YORK MEMBER FDIC MANHATTAN DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN BENSONHURST FLATBUSH CONEY ISLAND KINGS PLAZA VALLEY STREAM MASSAPEOUA HUNTINGTON STATION Brooklyn Academy .of Music 775 , 61 .E7 Program Saturday, May 7, 1977 (8:30pm)/Lepercq Space Sunday, May 8, 1977 (2:OOpm) /Lepercq Space Ii BAM's Chamber Music The Mai llot Sensation Series begins with a single sleek suit...then Beaux Arts Trio every move you make under the sun becomes a sensuous experience. We have a maillot for you in our collection. Menahem Pressler Piano Isidore Cohen Violin Bernard Greenhouse Cello Ludwig van Beethoven Trio in E Flat Major, Op. No. 1 Allegro Adagio Scherzo Presto Charles Ives Trio for Violin, Cello & Piano Andante moderato Scherzo "TSIAJ (Presto)" Moderato con moto INTERMISSION Antonin Dvorak Trio for Violin,Cello & Piano, in F minor, Op. 65 Allegro ma non troppo Allegretto grazioso- Meno mosso Poco Adagio Allegro con brio Oasis Swimwear (383). AT THE A&S NEAREST YOU. Scott Nickrenz is Music Director of BAM's Chamber Music Series, made possible in part by a contribution from the Surdna Foundation. About the program . The best time Ludwig van Beethoven Trio for Violin, Cello and (1770-1827) Piano, No. 1 in E flat Major, a Op. 1 No. 1 When Robert Schumann wrote his famous article in praise of Brahms, he claimed that the young musician did not "reveal primetobuylocat ion his mastery by . gradual development" but, rather, "sprang fully armed from the head of Jove". Schumann, rightfully im- pressed by his young protege's immense gifts, never lived to hear the "gradual development" he said didn't exist- but it all goes to prove that even genius needs time to mellow. Similarly, we shouldn't attach too much importance to the suggestively virginal ring of Opus 1 Number 1 in the Trio under discussion. For this superbly vital composition is no more Beethoven's before premiere effort than a New York debut represents an average concert artist's first recital. As a matter of fact, the three trios of Op. 1 were not even tt becomes a Beethoven's first published works. The young composer/pianist must have thought well of these pieces for it was with them that he chose to make his formal bow into Viennese musical prime location. society. The occasion took place in 1792, soon after his ar- rival from Bonn, at the home of Prince Lichnowsky to whom the trios are dedicated. Beethoven's teacher Haydn was present at the gathering and though he was generally complimentary, suggested that perhaps Beethoven should think twice before publishing the third work, the tempestuous Op. 1 No. 3 in C minor. Too much has been made of the alleged rift between pupil and teacher. Perhaps Beethoven did feel a bit ruffled but it is also quite evident that he took the older master's advice to heart, for in the three years between the soiree and the actual publication date (1795), Beethoven revised all three works very thoroughly indeed. Haydn, in any case, had little to be jealous about at that stage of his career and in fact- as we know vis a vis Mozart- was one of the most charitable of colleagues. We find in Op. No. 1 much of the audacious dynamism found in so many of Beethoven's E flat works (e.g. the tumultously propulsive first movement of the Op. 7 Piano Sonata; the vib- rant brilliance of the Op. 12 No. 3 for Violin and Piano: the magesterial dynamism of the "Emperor" Concerto). The opening Allegro takes off like a rocket with an upward arpeggio E figuration. Shortly we find the keyboard protagonist hurling dizzying scale passages at the listener. (We must remember that Beethoven was himself the pianist-from all reports the most 1 WI continued ... CINDERELLA 115 Brooklyn Union Gas Savings Bank CO-SPONSORS John Melvin Assoc,- 783-7800 Restaurant Charcuterie Catering The St.Felix Street Brownstone Restoration pate vice adjacent to the Brooklyn Academy of Musk. now open for lunch and dinner Special pre-theater dinner reservations recommended 0 Brooklyn Union Gas 178 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 624.8852 1 . Beethoven, continued brilliant of his time!) The second theme is exaggeratedly The place lyrical as befits perfect classical decorum. The sublime Adagio shows how such a slow movement can be both graceful and profound. This section does have a bit of the eighteenth- to come... century Classical decorum which Beethoven was to abandon so soon afterward, but the music is nevertheless full of af- fecting things (e.g. the powerfully expressive changes from for major to minor at mid point). The third movement is one of low-cost, Beethoven's first scherzi-a piece full of galloping momentum and insolent high spirits. Even the central trio section surges high-quality ahead in breathtaking one-to-a-bar manner. The finale, Presto, has definite motivic connections to the work's opening move- ment. For one thing the tenths which the piano states at the family protection! outset are derived from the third theme of the first section, and the downward arpeggios which follow immediately thereafter are little more than the very first subject turned around backward. Aside form such technicalities, this last The movement is a rondo full of dazzling brilliance and humor. Williamsburgh Charles Ives Trio for Violin, Savings (1874-1954) Cello and Piano Connecticut born Charles Ives, who was a New York insurance Bank agent, might well have had qualms had he been asked to take Incorporated 1851 out a policy on his own music. In retrospect, he would have been wise to do so for clearly, this is a case of double indemnity if ever there was one! During all but the last few years of his Brooklyn Offices: lifetime, the crusty New Englander was considered an amateur 1 Hanson Place at Flatbush Ave., -a composer whose "works" were little more than free-for-alls Brooklyn, N.Y. 11243 and hodge-podges; rambling non-structures replete with sleezy 175 Broadway at Driggs Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11211 quotes from patriotic tunes, Salvation Army bands, country 86th St. and 23rd Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11214 fiddlers and Sunday school hymns (with occasional nods to Starrett City Office: Corner of Pennsylvania Ave. Beethoven and Stephen Foster). At their best, these pieces and Twin Pines Drive, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11207 were considered amusingly original. At their (more usual) Nassau Offices: worst, utterly unplayable and banal. Thanks to a few zealots Hempstead Turnpike at Center Lane, like the pianist John Kirkpatrick, who performed the Concord Levittown, N.Y. 11756 Sonata from memory as early as 1939, Ives gradually received 682 Dogwood Ave., Franklin Square, N.Y. 11010 his due as the Grandpa Moses of American music. Granted, there is a certain modicum of bedlam in most of Ives' creations Suffolk Office: and also many a purple page that more sophisticated craftsman- Walt Whitman Shopping Center, over cement. Huntington Station, N.Y. 11746 ship might well have smoothed with intellectual There is no denying the tremendous vitality and "good vib- Queens Offices: rations" which have endeared this music to a generation still in 63rd Drive at Saunders St., Rego Park, N.Y. 11374 diapers when Ives went to his reward. Ives was not so badly ti 136-65 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, N.Y. 11354 reared musically. After graduating from Yale where he under- 107-15 Continental Ave., Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375 went a fairly extensive musical upbringing (albeit a convention- al one), Ives experimented with chord clusters and polytonal- Manhattan Offices: ity even before his trans-Atlantic colleagues were doing so. 74 Wall St. at Pearl St., New York, N.Y. 10005 345 East 86th St., New York, N.Y. 10028 continued ... II Inquire about Coma Restaurant Savings Bank tel: 855-4830 UL8-2000 Life Insurance just across from BAM at any office open daily for lunch and dinner till 9 P.M. without Authentic Italian and American Cuisine obligation! special orders upon request . Ives, continued chamber works-that is, if one excludes the ever played Seren- F String Quartet The work being presented today was composed mostly in ade for Strings-are, undoubtedly, the major by the A major Piano Quintet 1904 but had to wait until 1911 for completion. Naturally, ("American") followed closely the in F minor, is there were many. sketches, and the title on one of them reads: and "Dumky" Trio. Today's work, Trio the masterpiece of its "Trio Yalensia & Americana-for Violin, Cello, Piano less frequently performed but every bit in 1883, and first perfomed by Dvorak Fancy Names "Real name --- --------- >Yankee jaws---at Mr. (or bretheren. Composed Lachner and the cellist Eli) Yale's School for nice bad boys!!". Many years later, Ives (at the piano!) with the violinist Neruda, the piece is very much the aesthetic counterpart of explained this music in the following manner ". .the trio the Symphony No. 7 in D minor which was written at roughly was, in a general way . a reflection or impression of . college days on the campus, now 50 years ago. The 1st move- the same time. Both are somber, darkly symphonic works- almost, one might say, Dvorak at his most Brahmsian! The ment recalled a rather short but serious talk, to those on the Yale fence, by an old professor of Philosophy; the 2nd, the contrast between this trio and the most mercurial, light text- ured "Dumky" is, in fact, a rather remarkable example of the games and antics by the students .