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| Chamber Music at the Y: Bios and Program Notes |
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Tuesday October 28: Ticket Information
Wednesday October 29: Ticket Information |
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Russian Evolutions |
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Meet the Artists |
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Program Notes |
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| Russian Evolutions |
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The Musical Voices of fin-de-siècle Russia
By Luke Howard
When one considers that only 20 years separate the premieres of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony in 1893 and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913, it’s obvious that an epic transformation occurred in Russian music around the turn of the century. It was an era in which fierce nationalism, cosmopolitanism, conservative Romanticism and modernist experimentation flourished side-by-side—not always amicably, but always to the enrichment of the Russian musical tradition.
The evolution of Russian music from Tchaikovsky to Stravinsky wasn’t only an evolution of style. And in some cases it wasn’t even that. Tchaikovsky’s brand of late-Romantic lyricism endured happily, for example, in the works of Rachmaninoff, Taneyev and Glazunov. Rather, it was a rapid unfolding and weaving together of disparate stylistic threads—some old, many new—into a vivid musical tapestry.
Similar changes were underway in the musical traditions of France, Scandinavia, England and other cultures that had spent most of the 19th century in the shadows of Germanic art music. But what makes the Russian fin-de-siècle so remarkable is that its art-music tradition was still nascent at the time, and its wide diversity sprang swiftly from only a handful of influential figures. Relatively free from the weight of tradition and the domineering influence of Wagnerism so prevalent in Western Europe, Russian composers at century’s end enthusiastically adopted the entire range of stylistic options available to them.
Surprisingly, this unprecedented variety of styles flourished within a rather close-knit group. Nearly every one of these composers was a student of either the nationalistic Rimsky-Korsakov or the cosmopolitan Tchaikovsky (or a student of their students). Yet there was remarkable fluidity between their various approaches to composition. Taneyev, for example, was Tchaikovsky’s student, yet he openly and frequently criticized his teacher’s works while forming a long-lasting friendship with Rimsky-Korsakov. Neither of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most famous pupils, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, persisted with folk-based nationalism as had their teacher. Scriabin, who started out as the “Russian Chopin,” eventually became a modernist, while Prokofiev willingly reverted to a more lyrical style after creating a splash as Russian music’s enfant terrible. Finally, Stravinsky regarded Tchaikovsky’s works as more profoundly Russian than many overtly nationalistic scores (including, presumably, those of his mentor), and repeatedly transformed his own compositional style with impunity.
In all these composers we find a marked independence of spirit. They were willing to try out competing and complementary styles in order to discover their own version of the Russian musical “voice.” It was this freedom to explore and experiment, to choose and fuse aesthetic principles, combined with the creative vigor of the “Silver Age,” that ensured the unequalled vitality of Russian music from this era.
© 2008Luke Howard |
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| Meet the Artists |
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Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
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| After three decades appearing in the world's major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda, The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio continues to dazzle audiences and critics alike with their unparalleled artistry. Since making their debut at the White House for President Carter's inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature. |
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| The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio kicked off the 2008-09 season at Wigmore Hall in London with a complete cycle of Beethoven’s trios. This season the Trio is also celebrating the 70th birthdays of two distinguished composers: in September the Trio performed Joan Tower’s For Daniel, written specifically for them, at a tribute concert in New York City; and on April 28/29, the Trio will present the world premiere of Ellen Zwilich's Septet in collaboration with the Miami String Quartet. |
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| On the recording front, the ensemble is currently in partnership with KOCH International Classics. Their most recent project is a four-disc cycle of the complete Brahms trios, scheduled to be released this fall. In October 2006, KOCH released a disc of works by Arensky and Tchaikovsky to great acclaim, and it has re-released many of The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's hallmark recordings, including their collection of the complete Beethoven trios, chamber works by Ravel and Danielpour, the complete sonatas and trios of Shostakovich, and trios written especially for the group by Pärt, Zwilich, Kirchner and Silverman. Other highlights of their vast discography include a critically acclaimed all-Haydn CD (Dorian), the complete Mendelssohn and Brahms trios (Vox Cum Laude), and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra (Chandos). |
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| Among their many honors, in 2002, The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio was named Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year, and they received the first annual Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award by the Foundation for Recorded Music. The following season they were named Chamber Ensemble in Residence at the Kennedy Center, a position they still hold today. Of particular pride is the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (KLRITA), created by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit to honor the Trio’s contribution to chamber music and to encourage the careers of promising young piano trios. Presented every two years, the KLRITA was first awarded in 2003 to the Claremont Trio of America, followed by the Trio con Brio Copenhagen of Denmark and most recently the ATOS Trio of Germany. |
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| Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson have been members of the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2005, while Joseph Kalichstein continues as a long-revered teacher at The Juilliard School of Music. |
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| Program Notes |
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| RACHMANINOFF: Trio élégiaque in G minor |
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| The three piano trios on tonight’s program share not only a common stylistic lineage but a common elegiac theme. In the tightly knit musical world of late 19th-century Russia, it’s not surprising that Tchaikovsky, Arensky and Rachmaninoff came into close contact. But their affinity ran much deeper than casual professional acquaintance. Despite the generation-wide gap in their ages, they were artistic soulmates. Associated with the Moscow Conservatory, they distanced themselves from the assertive nationalism of the St. Petersburg-based composers known as the Mighty Five (Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Cui, and Balakirev). |
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| Although Rachmaninoff’s prowess as a pianist has tended to eclipse his compositional accomplishments, he occupies an important niche in the Russian pantheon. As a fifteen-year-old wunderkind, he was singled out for greatness by no less a judge than Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff’s characteristically muscular romanticism is on display in his first Trio élégiaque of 1892. (Its sequel of the same title was composed the following year and dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s memory.) Rachmaninoff wrote the trio only a few months before his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Arensky and Taneyev. It was Tchaikovsky, however, who exerted the most potent influence on him. Not surprisingly, there are strong parallels between the Trio élégiaque and Tchaikovsky’s A minor Piano Trio. |
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| In addition to their elegiac introspection, both works depart from the traditional three or four-movement piano trio format. Rachmaninoff compresses his into a single sonata-form structure, lasting about fifteen minutes. In the opening bars, marked Lento lugubre, low-lying open fifths in the strings outline the somber G minor tonality. The piano soon introduces a plangent melody that serves as the trio’s organizing theme. Henceforth, the piano is very much the dominant partner in the ensemble. The virtuoso keyboard part, with its lapidary chords and intricate filigree, is clearly molded for Rachmaninoff’s famously large hands. If he tends to substitute fragmentation and elaboration for genuine thematic development, the music’s incandescent ardor is nonetheless heartfelt. |
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| The manuscript score of the Trio élégiaque is dated January 18-21, 1892. Rachmaninoff was pressed to finish it in time for his first formal public concert at the end of the month. “I’m sure that cold water will be thrown over my first appearance,” he confided to a friend, “but that means nothing; I can bear that, too. May the Lord only justify the hopes people have placed in me.” In the event, his debut was an artistic success but a financial failure; Rachmaninoff complained that he didn’t even recoup his expenses. Still, his star was in the ascendant. Only a few months would pass before he wrote the piece that brought his first taste of immortality: the ever-popular Prelude in C-sharp minor for solo piano. |
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| ARENSKY: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32 |
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| Anton Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia, in 1861 and died near Terioki, Finland (now Zelenogorsk, Russia) in 1906. The Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor was written in 1894. |
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| Largely forgotten today, Anton Arensky was a prominent figure in Russian musical life in the late 1800s. Immediately upon graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he was a prize student of Rimsky-Korsakov, he was appointed professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his pupils there were Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Glière. In 1895, he returned to St. Petersburg and succeeded Balakirev as director of the imperial chapel choir. Six years later, tuberculosis forced him into premature retirement, and he died at a sanatorium in Finland in 1906 at age forty-four. |
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| Tchaikovsky considered Arensky “a man of remarkable gifts, but morbidly nervous and lacking in firmness—altogether a strange man.” The description suggests that Arensky’s talent was not ideally suited to the classroom. Indeed, Rachmaninoff described him as a mediocre teacher, although he admitted that he had benefited from Arensky’s instruction in harmony. As a composer, Arensky could be painstaking to a fault. He was known for plotting his compositions out in meticulous detail before setting notes down on paper. Critics found more evidence of perspiration than of inspiration in his work. Yet his taste and craftsmanship were beyond reproach. “Arensky is extraordinarily clever in music,” observed Tchaikovsky; “everything is so subtly and truly thought out. He is a very interesting musical personality.” |
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| In his relatively short life, Arensky produced a sizable body of work, including three operas, two symphonies, concertos for piano and violin, numerous art songs and an array of solo and chamber music. Only a handful of these compositions have found a lasting place in the repertory. Of these, the D minor Piano Trio is probably the most familiar to concert audiences. Written in 1894, on the eve of Arensky’s return to St. Petersburg, it is dedicated to the great Russian cellist Karl Davidoff, who had died five years earlier. The trio’s memorial character is most apparent in the slow third movement, entitled Elegia, which opens with a tenderly lyrical solo in G minor for muted cello. |
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| On balance, however, the D minor Trio is neither especially dark nor consistently elegiac. In fact, the Elegia is the shortest, and far from the weightiest, of the four movements. It is preceded by a swashbuckling Scherzo in D Major that evokes the spirit of Mendelssohn, whose own Piano Trio in D minor would have been well known to Arensky. The two outer movements, by contrast, mark the composer as a faithful follower of Tchaikovsky. Although Arensky possessed only a modicum of Tchaikovsky’s lyrical genius, the listener’s interest is held by the skillful working out of his ideas and by the trio’s bold and richly imaginative harmonies. |
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| TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Trio in A minor “In Memory of a Great Artist,” Op. 50 |
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| Tchaikovsky’s A minor Piano Trio, his sole contribution to the genre, has long been among the most beloved works in the chamber music repertory. Indeed, so popular was it during the composer’s lifetime that it was played at the memorial concerts presented in Tchaikovsky’s honor in Moscow and St. Petersburg in November 1893. Ironically, Tchaikovsky had resisted the impulse to write a piano trio, even after his patron and confidant, Nadezhda von Meck, implored him to do so. He explained his reluctance in a letter to her dated December 26, 1880: |
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| “You ask why I have never written a trio. . . . I simply cannot endure the combination of pianoforte with violin or violoncello. To my mind the timbre of these instruments will not blend, and I assure you it is a torture to me to have to listen to a trio or sonata of any kind for piano and strings. . . . . How unnatural is the union of three such individualities as the pianoforte, the violin and the violoncello! Each loses something of its value. The warm and singing tone of the violin and the ‘cello sounds limited beside that king of instruments, the pianoforte; while the latter strives in vain to prove that it can sing like its rivals. . . . There is always something artificial about a pianoforte trio, each of the three instruments being continually called upon to express what the composer imposes on it, rather than what lies within its characteristic utterance.” |
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| One year later, almost to the day, Tchaikovsky ate his words. Mme. von Meck was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was at work on a piano trio in homage to his late friend, the pianist Nikolay Rubinstein. “Whether I shall finish it, whether it will come out successfully I do not know,” the composer wrote, “but I would very much wish to bring what I have begun to a successful conclusion.” Sketches for the trio were completed by mid-January 1882 and it received its first performance in Moscow on March 11, with Tchaikovsky’s friend Sergey Taneyev at the piano. |
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| Taneyev was unstinting in his praise, declaring that he couldn’t “remember ever having experienced more pleasure while learning a new piece.” Tchaikovsky, however, was assailed by doubt. He told Mme. von Meck that he feared he had “arranged music of a symphonic character as a trio, instead of writing directly for my instruments.” In fact, for all its lush “symphonic” textures, the A minor Trio is written in a thoroughly idiomatic manner for each of the three instruments. The violin and cello take turns as soloists and duet partners, with the piano playing an alternately starring and supporting role. |
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Perhaps the trio’s most outstanding feature is its unconventional bipartite form. The first of the two movements, entitled Pezzo elegiaco (elegiac piece), establishes the prevailing mood, which Tchaikovsky aptly described as “a somewhat plaintive and funereal coloring.” The gloom is dispelled by the serenely limpid E major theme of the second movement. First stated by the piano alone, the twenty-bar melody undergoes a series of eleven highly imaginative variations, leading to a fiery Variazione Finale and a short funeral march that quietly echoes the trio’s impassioned beginning.
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© 2009 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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