Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival
2006 Festival CD

Early 20th Century Chamber Music for Piano & Strings

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PHILIPP SCHARWENKA (1847–1917)
Piano Trio in C-sharp minor, Opus 100

Born in rural Poland, Philipp Scharwenka received his musical training in Berlin, where his family relocated after perceiving the unusual talent of their two sons. The brothers spent the majority of their careers together in Berlin as teachers at the conservatory founded by Xaver Scharwenka, also a composer and one of the most famous piano virtuosi of his day. Although overshadowed by his more charismatic brother, Philipp was highly respected as a composer and educator. Among his pupils were Otto Klemperer and Oskar Fried.

After his encouraging compositional debut in 1874, Scharwenka became increasingly productive. During the latter part of his life he focused on chamber works with strings and piano, possibly because of his marriage to violin virtuoso Marianne Stresow. These compositions, little known today, are distinguished by rich melodic and harmonic invention, as well as masterful craftsmanship. Each creates a strong and unique atmosphere.

The Opus 100 Piano Trio (1901) departs from traditional movement sequence as it opens with a slow Lento and continues with two fast sections. The work is highly unified. Long thematic lines of the Lento tranquillo recur in the final movement, and the harmonic scheme is consistent in all three movements. Opus 100 is remarkable for the subtle pacing heard throughout. Smooth transitions between all of its ideas create a dramatically varied, yet seamless, dialogue among the three instruments. The progression from the elegiac Lento to the animated scherzo movement (Allegro), concluding with the turbulent finale, is logical and compelling.

OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879–1936)
Quintet for Piano and Strings

One of the most important Italian composers of his time, Ottorino Respighi has often been compared to his literary contemporary, the author Gabriele D’Annunzio, because of his fluent and sensuous modes of expression. Respighi is best known for his early symphonic poems “The Pines of Rome” and “The Fountains of Rome,” lavish programmatic works that reveal his brilliant sense of instrumental color. Yet Respighi sought more than the grand effect. He hoped to invigorate his national music through an exploration of its ancient roots and Gregorian chant. Rigorously trained by Rimsky-Korsakoff in St. Petersburg, Respighi also admired the harmonic nuances of Debussy and Strauss.

Respighi wrote his Piano Quintet in 1902, when he was a student in St. Petersburg supporting himself as a violinist. A mood portrait of a wide range of emotions, this early F minor work reveals poetically muted passages and occasional moments of melancholy. Evocative details, such as depictions of tolling bells, reflect his experiences in Russia.

The Quintet opens with a unison statement of the main theme played by the four strings. The piano answers with a second motif. The movement then develops its ideas episodically through large range of dynamics and changes of key. The brief Andantino, in B-flat minor, is cast in three-part song form with a central interlude for piano. The Vivacissimo, which follows without pause, opens with a playful figure in the piano smoothly answered by the strings (B-flat major). After a substantial interlude featuring the piano, the Andantino returns (B-flat minor). The tempo then accelerates, and the work concludes with a rapid prestissimo.

SERGEI TANEYEV (1856–1915)
Quintet for Two Violins, Viola, Violoncello,
and Piano in G minor, Opus 30

Sergei Taneyev stood as a lone figure in late 19th-century Russian composition circles. Strikingly handsome, he aroused passionate admiration in numerous women such as Tolstoy’s wife, but affected not to notice. One of his society’s rare teetotalers, he discouraged even eminent visitors from drinking or smoking in his home. His professed independence from colleagues was remarkable. Openly disapproving of his contemporary nationalist composers, he also claimed to dislike the music of Brahms, to whom he was often compared. He frequently criticized the works of his teacher Tchaikovsky, although his own compositions often echo Tchaikovsky’s lyricism.

A piano prodigy, Taneyev enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory when he was ten years old, and within three years became Tchaikovsky’s pupil in composition. After Tchaikovsky’s resignation, Taneyev replaced his mentor and soon became known as one of Russia’s greatest composition teachers, cementing his reputation by writing a major treatise on strict counterpoint. After 1889, he decided to concentrate on his own compositions. He then created numerous chamber works requiring piano so that he could participate in their performances.

Before beginning a composition, Taneyev experimented painstakingly with possible themes to determine their contrapuntal pliability. After selecting his motifs, he writes that he proceeds “not by composing the whole out of the successive parts, but by going from the whole to the details.” The resulting compositions, often highly intellectualized, reveal elegance and superb polish.

The Opus 30 Piano Quintet (1911) begins with an extensive slow introduction that anticipates material to be developed in the main part of the movement (G minor). The four themes of this large-scale sonata form movement interact in ingenious combinations. The whimsical Scherzo (E-flat major), animated by light, ricochet bowing, resembles a fast waltz. A graceful melody in the central Trio section provides a contrast. The Largo (C major) is a slow passacaglia built upon 40 repetitions of descending scale motif, heard primarily in the bass line. Above this support, Taneyev creates a rich tapestry of sound that suggests the late Romantic influence of Wagner. The sumptuous Finale (C minor) incorporates themes heard earlier, and a grand coda (G major) concludes the work.

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