2005 Tuson Winter Chamber Music Festival CD
JOHANNES BRAHMS
(1833–1897)
Horn Trio in E-flat major, Opus 40
Andante
Scherzo: Allegro
Adagio mesto
Finale: Allegro con brio
Brahms studied horn as a boy in Hamburg and remained fond of the instrument throughout his life. He began to compose his Opus 40 shortly after the death of his mother in 1865, possibly as a nostalgic remembrance of his childhood. Brahms specified that the horn part should be played by the older Waldhorn, an instrument he preferred to the more fluent valved horn because of its clearer tone.The noble simplicity of Opus 40 results from the restrained lines written for this cumbersome, yet hauntingly beautiful, instrument. However, today’s performers almost invariably perform on the modern French horn.
In the rhapsodic Andante movement, two contrasting themes alternate to create a symmetrical five-part form reminiscent of the older divertimento style. Brahms wrote that the first theme occurred to him as he stood on “wooded heights amid fir trees” during a visit to the Black Forest. The movement concludes with plaintive calls in the horn.
The Scherzo begins with a spirited melody that suggests ancient hunting calls. A contrasting Trio section (A-flat minor) evokes the elegiac mood of the Andante. The energetic opening material returns. Both the solemn Adagio mesto and the rapid Finale are linked by a song from Brahms’s childhood, “In the Meadow Stands a House.” Heard near the end of the introspective third movement, this venerable German folk song is transformed by changes of tempo and articulation into the joyful main theme of the exultant finale.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
(1810–1856)
Andante & Variations for Two Pianos, Two Cellos, and Horn, Opus 46
Robert Schumann wrote the majority of his Andante and Variations in February, 1843 while his wife Clara visited her father Frederick, a stern man long hostile to the Schumann’s marriage. Friends reported that Schumann during this time suffered from “loneliness and hangovers.” Although the composition of Opus 46 proceeded smoothly, Schumann later wrote, “The work is very elegiac. I believe I was somewhat melancholy while composing it.”
There is no precedent for the unusual scoring of Opus 46. Because Schumann’s musician friends criticized its sonorities as being too somber, he immediately rescored the work for two pianos. However, there is evidence that he preferred his first version, which he described as “a delicate plant.” He insisted that the Quintet Variations, as he called them, would have been a success at the premiere “if only the fire alarm had not gone off.”
After an introductory section, the theme is stated (B-flat major) and subjected to 15 variations (but only eight variations in the reduced two-piano version). In the first four variations the horn and cellos are accompanimental to the pianos, but afterwards are fully equal voices. Especially notable variations are the slow and ethereal fifth and the rousing fanfare of the seventh.
WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI
(1913–1994)
Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Two Pianos
Although contemporary Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski is best known for post-1960s compositions influenced by Schoenberg’s 12-tone method and the aleatoric principles of John Cage, he also wrote numerous tonally-centered works for small groups during the years of Nazi occupation in Warsaw. A virtuoso pianist with two pianos available at the Art and Fashion Cafe—his only public forum— Lutoslawski created over 200 duo-piano works, mostly free arrangements of his concert favorites. The Variations on a Theme of Paganini (1941) was one of his very few works to survive the devastating Warsaw Rising of 1944–1945.
One of Lutoslawski’s most frequently performed works, his Variations is actually a modernist transcription of Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor for Unaccompanied Violin. A showcase for Paganini’s fabulous technical endowments, the work brilliantly concluded the legendary virtuoso’s 1820 set of 24 caprices. Paganini’s famous theme and twelve variations have been both transcribed by Liszt and expanded by numerous other composers, including Brahms. Lutoslawski rearranged his own version of the variations for solo piano and orchestra in 1978.
The variations, which closely follow the Paganini model, imaginatively restate the original material with continual exchanges between the two pianists. The rapid string changes of Variation 2 become a pianistic flourish of chromatic chords; the thirds and tenths of variation 6 are set as a canon between the two pianos. The alternating arco and left hand pizzicati of Variation 9 are conveyed through scattered sforzandi. Lutoslawski alters the finale by substituting a grand restatement of the theme for Paganini’s violin arpeggiations.
BÉLA BARTÓK
(1881–1945)
Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Two Pianos
Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance)
Piheno (Relaxation)
Sebes (Fast Dance)
The inspiration for Contrasts occurred when Joseph Szegeti, the eminent Hungarian violinist, and Benny Goodman, the great jazz clarinetist, dined at a restaurant in 1938. They decided to perform together but realized that their collaboration would require new repertoire. The obvious choice of composer was Szegeti’s compatriot Béla Bartók, who could also perform with them as pianist. Szegeti wrote to Bartók: “Benny has offered to triple the commission you generally receive. Please write him a registered letter in which you agree to write a six to seven minute clarinet and violin duo with piano accompaniment, the ownership of which remains yours. It would be very good if the composition were to consist of two independent sections which could be performed separately, and of course we hope it will include a brilliant clarinet and violin cadenza!” Within a month Bartók mailed the new work to its commissioners.
The Verbunkos is a vigorous Hungarian dance traditionally performed by army recruiting officers dressed in full regalia. This marchlike dance was ideally performed on the taragato, a relative of the clarinet with a conical bore. Piheno, Hungarian for repose, was added to the work after its 1939 premiere, but was included at its first recording. Szegeti approved of this slow interlude: “This ‘night piece,’ with its wonderfully calm and free air, was highly necessary for balance.” For the Sebes, or fast dance, the violinist must have ready a second violin tuned to the notes G sharp, D, A, and E flat, which together create the effect of a danse macabre. The slower middle section is based on a Bulgarian dance rhythm of 3+2+3+2+3. The work concludes with a violin cadenza and a display of effects from all three instruments.
Cover art: Brenda Semanick • Design and art direction: GroundZero • Producer/Recording Engineer: Matthew Snyder