CHAMBER MUSIC PROGRAM NOTES
​by Judith Eckelmeyer

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The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Shostakovich Trio
​
Mikhall Bezverkhny, violin
Misha Kats, cello
Grigory Gruzman, piano

Wednesday, December 1, 1993
​Gartner Auditorium

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Program

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Trio in G major
     Andante 
     Poco adagio cantabile
     Rondo all' ongarese: Presto
        

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847): Trio in D minor, Op. 49
     Molto allegro agitato
     Andante con moto tranquillo
     Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace
     Finale: Allegro assai appassionato
     

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Trio No. 2, Op. 67
​     Andante
     Allegro con brio
     Largo
​     Allegretto
​

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Program Notes by Judith Eckelmeyer

The majority of Joseph Haydn's piano trios were written in the last two decades of the eighteenth century, when the piano had become the favored instrument of the bourgeoisie. A contemporary account from the time relates that "there is now no young lady, even among the daughters of the middle class, who cannot strum the piano, and sing to her own accompaniment." When he wrote his first sixteen piano trios about a quarter of a century earlier, however, Haydn had clearly accepted the harpsichord as a viable component in the ensemble. Composed before 1760, while he was employed as Director of Music in the service of Count Morzin at Vienna and Lukavec, they carried the subtitle "Sonatas for the harpsichord or piano forte with an accompaniment for violin and violincello." These early trios reflect the influence of the baroque trio sonata (such as those of Corelli), in which the two upper voices received harmonic support from the harpsichord and cello continuo. Johann Sebastian Bach, in composing his own works in this genre, bestowed upon the harpsichord an increasingly important role and also wrote trio sonatas to be played on a single keyboard instrument (usually the organ or pedal harpsichord, with the pedals constituting the third voice) or with a treble instrument. The role of the keyboard gained even greater prominence in 1775 with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's publication of a set of "Sonatas for piano that may be played either as solos or accompanied by the violin and the violoncello," thus relegating the accompanying instruments to a position of optional filler. The importance of the piano, and thus, the piano trio, in late eighteenth-century Viennese middle-class life should not be underrated. Music lovers abounded among the bourgeoisie, and the piano became a sort of status symbol throughout that level of society. Whereas the string quartet genre required a certain degree of technical sophistication on the part of the players, the demands of the piano trio (or piano sonata accompanied by strings or winds) were within the reach of the reasonably skilled amateur musician. This factor played a significant role in determining the style in which the piano trios of the time were written. This was also the period during which the harpsichord (the instrument of the aristocracy) was ceding its popularity and importance to the piano forte, with its greater expressive range; Haydn's piano trios reflects the changing attitudes and tastes which were responsible for these new developments.

Between 1760 and 1784, Haydn composed no piano trios, opting instead for works on a larger scale (in particular, his Sturm und Drang symphonies). By the time he took up the genre again, it was at the request of his publishers, who viewed the extremely  popular form as being full of lucrative possibilities. To satisfy the demands of the public, it had become a common practice to transcribe well-known orchestral works into arrangements for piano trios and even Haydn made arrangements of his own symphonies and string quartets. Haydn's first set of mature piano trios (Nos. 17-30) date from the years 1784 to 1790, just prior to the first of his two extended visits to London. He composed a third set (Nos. 31-45) between 1793 and 1796 in England at the request of English publishers. By this time, it is clear that he had in mind the sound of the Broadwood piano, which differed from its Viennese counterpart in its increased range and its softer, warmer tone.

The Piano Trio in G major was among Haydn's late set of works in the genre; it was published by Longman and Broderip of London in 1795. The English edition is dedicated to a Mrs. Rebecca Schroeter, who took some piano lessons with the composer during the summer of 1791; a romantic relationship developed thereafter between them (as reflected in their correspondence, which begins rather formally and becomes increasingly more intimate as time passes). On his second visit to London in 1794, Haydn secured lodgings in the immediate vicinity of Mrs. Schroeter's house.

​The Trio opens with a song-like theme which is treated as a series of variations. Here, Haydn has clearly treated the violin as an equal voice rather than as merely part of the accompaniment. The independence of the violin part is again reinforced by its melodic function in the second movement. The concluding movement is a rondo in the Hungarian style, blending the composer's own sophisticated style with that of folk-song.

The son of an affluent banker, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy enjoyed perhaps the most privileged upbringing of any composer of his generation. He was born into an environment of luxury and grace, where the pursuit of artistic and intellectual ideals was not only respected but avidly encouraged. His grandfather was a renowned philosopher, and the young Mendelssohn had countless enviable opportunities to associate with some of the greatest artists and intellectuals in nineteenth-century Europe, not the least of whom was the poet Goethe. In addition, Mendelssohn was afforded opportunities to travel throughout Europe during his youth. These experiences came to have a major impact on a number of his works.

The Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49, is the first of Mendelssohn's two piano trios, and arguably the most popular. It was written during the summer of 1839, when Mendelssohn was vacationing in Hochheim (near Frankfurt). In a letter written to a friend, he makes the first casual reference to having completed the Trio:

The summer months I have just passed in Frankfurt have thoroughly refreshed me. In the morning I worked, then bathed or sketched; in the afternoons I played the organ or piano and afterwards walked in the woods...The new pieces I have completed are a Piano Trio in D minor, a book of four-part songs to be sung in the open, some songs for one voice, some organ fugues, half a Psalm, etc.

As its premiere, for which Mendelssohn played the piano part and Ferdinand David the violin part, Robert Schumann praised the work saying,

It is the master trio of today, as in their day were those of Beethoven in B-flat and D, as was that of Schubert in E-flat; a wholly fine composition, that, when years have passed away, will delight grandchildren. Mendelssohn is the Mozart of the nineteenth-century, the brightest among musicians, the one who looks most clearly of all through the contradictions of time, and reconciles us to them.

However, following the premier, Ferdinand Hiller, pianists, conductor and friend of the composer, approached Mendelssohn and offered a number of will-intentioned suggestions of possible revision to the work. In his own words:

I was tremendously impressed by the fire and spirit, the flow, and, in short, the masterly character of the whole thing; but I had one small misgiving. Certain piano passages in it, constructed on broken chords, seemed to me, to speak candidly, rather old-fashioned. I had lived for many years in Paris, seeing Liszt often, and Chopin every day, so that I was thoroughly accustomed to the richness of passages which marked the new piano school. I said something on the subject to Mendelssohn and suggested certain alterations, but at first he wouldn't listen to me.

After consideration, however, Mendelssohn finally rewrote the piano part (much to Hiller's satisfaction). After playing through the revised version for Hiller, Mendelssohn remarked, "That is to remain as a remembrance of you." It is this revised second version that is performed today.

The opening theme of the first movement is announced by the cello, then taken over by the violin. After a certain amount of elaboration, the second theme appears (again played by the cello), followed by a return of the first theme. The relatively brief development section is followed by the recapitulation of the themes; this is unusual in that not only is the original material reworked (this time with new counter-subjects), but a second development section occurs as well (just before the coda rounds out the movement). The lyrical second movements in three-part form, with the middle section written more to complement than to contrast with the two outer sections, and this is followed by an energetic scherzo. The finale begins as a standard sonata-form movement, with its first and second subject followed by a development section, but then changes direction with the introduction of an expansive melody for the cello, making it more or less the "C" section of a modified rondo. The return of the original theme with its gypsy-like melodies brings the movement to a close.

The life and work of Dmitri Shostakovich have long been identified with the changing political climate and aesthetic values in the former Soviet Union from the early 1920s until his death in 1975. His music was more often discussed and listened to for any underlying political implications it might contain than for its purely musical or aesthetic value. The fact that he refused to discuss publicly his music or the possible underlying political implications contained therein only added to the heavy misconceptions to which his music was already susceptible. The degree to which political vicissitudes affected him can be seen throughout his career in a variety of circumstances.

Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg (Leningrad under the Soviet regime), into a cultured Russian family. His father was an engineer employed by the government, and his mother was a professional pianist. He received his early musical training from his mother in the form of piano lessons and rudimentary music theory. In 1919, he entered the Petrograd Conservatory, where he studied piano with Nikolayev and composition with Maximilian Steinberg. This was a critical period in Russian history, during which famine and disease were rampant and had already destroyed a significant segment of the population in Petrograd. Born with frail health, these outside circumstances caused him to suffer from malnutrition, this in turn incited Alexander Glazunov, then the director of the Petrograd Conservatory, to make a personal appeal to the Commissar of Education to increase Shostakovich's food ration which was so necessary for his survival. He completed his studies at the Conservatory in 1925, graduating with certificates in both piano performance and composition. He submitted his First Symphony as his graduation composition (a work he wrote at the age of eighteen); it received its first performance in May 1926 by the Leningrad Philharmonic and has come to be one of his most popular and enduring composition. That same year, he won a prize for his piano playing at the Internation Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

After writing a number of generally well-received compositions, Shostakovich produced a work in 1932 that was to have major and conflicting implication for his career: the satirical opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (later re-named Katerina Izmailova, for its heroine), set to a libretto based on a short story by the nineteenth-century Russian writer Leshov. The plot involves adultery, murder, and, eventually suicide in the home of a merchant worker. First seen in Leningrad on January 22, 1934, Lady Macbeth was acclaimed by the Soviet musical wold as comparable to the very best operas produced in the West, and hailed by the Russian press as a work that "could only have been written by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture."

By 1936, however, the political climate in the Soviet Union had begun to change, introducing a wave of puritanism in Russian culture that was to affect the rising careers of the avant-garde composers, namely Sergei Prokofiev and Shostakovich. When Stalin himself attended a performance of Lady Macbeth, his ultimate shock with and utter disapproval of the work (in particular the scene in which, during a symphonic interlude, the act of adultery is suggested behind a curtain, orchestrated by insinuating passages played on slide trombones) was such that, the following day, the Communist Party submitted a document accusing Shostakovich of having created "a bedlam of noise." This was in sharp contrast to the lavish praise that had been showered on the work only four years earlier. As a result, the opera was withdrawn from further performances, and he abandoned any further attempts to compose works for the stage shortly thereafter concentrating instead on writing purely instrumental works.

Finally, in 1937, Shostakovich found himself back in political favor, after the successful premiere of his Fifth Symphony in Leningrad. It was embraced as a model of the highest Soviet art, a highly attainable and optimistic work. His Seventh Symphony, composed during the Nazi's siege of Leningrad in late 1941, stands at the height of his compositional achievements and came to be immensely popular due to its nationalistic theme. The work is programmatic to an extent, depicting the Nazi's storming of Leningrad with its mechanical, march-like ostinato increasing in loudness, only to be overcome and drowned out by a victorious Russian song. The Symphony became a national symbol of Russian triumph over seemingly unbeatable odds and was subtitled the Leningrad Symphony. This highly emotional work was performed during the War by nearly every orchestra in Russia and the Allied countries.

It was in this political and cultural climate that the Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor was written. Composed during the summer of 1944, it was given its premiere in November of that same year, with Shostakovich at the piano. The Trio is dedicated to the music critic Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky, who was a close friend of the composer. Sollertinsky was also the staff lecturer for the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra during World War II before his death in early 1944. The year is significant in that it marked the realization by the rest of the world of the Nazi atrocities at the Treblinka and other death camps, a knowledge that preoccupied Shostakovich during the summer of the Trio's composition.

The work opens with a solo cello introduction, played in harmonics; this theme is given over to the violin and then the piano  The main theme of the first movement evolves out of this introductory material and is permeated by folk-like themes which are developed over the course of the movement. The tempo increases to a frenzied pitch, after which everything winds down and the movement ends quietly.

The brief second movement is a scherzo (with a contrasting trio so short that one almost misses it!); Shostakovich was fond of contrasting movement full of grim implications with those of almost flippant brevity.

The third movement is a slow chaconne, composed in the darkest vein, and is introduced by eight somber chords in the piano. The violin and cello enter in their turn, and all three instruments join in simultaneous lament. From this slow, sad, almost resigned movement, the finale begins without a pause. The violin plays a pizzicato dance theme which is pushed aside with the violent entrance of the piano, playing in octaves. This dark theme has been referred to by one critic as "the impudent, cynical saturnalia of death." Following the extensive development section, the dance-theme ends abruptly, and the piano re-introduces  the pensive opening theme of the first movement, a sort of flash-back, which is then taken up by the violin and cello. A crashing entrance from the piano abruptly thwarts the reminder of earlier times, and as the music quiets once again, fragments of the first dance theme are heard. The eight chords which began the chaconne are heard once again, and as the movement ends, the last shards of the little dance theme are heard.

Judith Eckelmeyer © 1993

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As The Shostakovich Trio original performance is not available on YouTube, please enjoy these performances:

Haydn's Trio in G major
Aleksandr Snytkin, violin | Marie-Thaïs Levesque Oliver, violoncello | Anastasia Markina, pian

Mendelssohn's Trio in D minor, Op. 49
Trio Gaspard
Hyo-Sun Lim, piano | Jonian Ilia Kadesha, violin | Vashti Mimosa Hunter, cello

Shostakovich's Trio No. 2, Op. 67
Mao Itoh, Violine | Unai Ruiz de Gordejuela, Violoncello | Jin Hyung Lim, Klavier

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