Program
Dvořák
Piano Trio in E minor,
Op. 90 “Dumky”
Smetana
Piano Trio in G minor,
Op. 15
MARCH 13th, 2012
Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.
The Storioni Trio
The Storioni Trio has established itself as one of the leading Dutch chamber music ensembles, with concerts at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, and the most prestigious European festivals. “The Storioni Trio…the flagship of Dutch culture..” NRC Handelsblad the Netherlands. The Trio are artistic directors of the “Storioni Festival” in Eindhoven. Guest musicians from all over the world join the Trio for a festival during which unique chamber music programs with top international musicians as well as upcoming talented musicians of the highest caliber are presented.
Program Notes
Introduction
During the first half of the nineteenth century little was achieved in chamber music composition that was outside the Austrian and German traditions. By the mid-century Czech composers led the way in the evolution of identifiable national styles of composition. From Bedřich Smetana, a line of descent can be traced in the works of composers including, Fibich, Dvořák, Suk, Förester that extends into the twentieth century. It was the Czechs who conceived the idea of using the piano trio as an elegiac medium for commemoration.
Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 15
Bedřich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana, regarded as the ‘father’ of Czech music was born in Litomyšl, Bohemia, a part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire that is now in the Czech Republic. Smetana was brought up speaking exclusively German and did not attempt to write a letter in Czech until 1856. His nationalistic fervor first surfaced during the revolution in 1848 in Prague when he fought with the Citizen Corps against the Austrian Empire. The G Minor Piano Trio dates from the year 1855 in response to a family tragedy, the death of his beloved second child Bedřiška, who died at the age of four of scarlet fever and had displayed an affinity for music. In this trio Smetana exposes his wounded inner soul. The music is highly elegiac and tenderly mirrors the little girl so full of promise. The trio was first performed in Prague in 1855 and later revised in 1858 for performances in Göteborg, Sweden during a period of self-imposed exile from Prague.
The trio is unified through the systematic transformation of an opening motive built around a chromatic descent from the pitches “d” to “g”. The first movement begins with a clear statement of this idea presented by the unaccompanied violin achieving a unique sonority on the instrument’s lowest string. As a student, Smetana aspired to a career as a piano virtuoso. Franz Liszt was his hero and Liszt’s influence is felt in the piano writing of the first movement including double-octave passages in the development and the delicate fioratura writing in the tiny cadenza that precedes the recapitulation. Nationalistic elements pervade the dance-like character of the second movement based on the polka. In this movement Smetana employs a favorite form of Robert Schumann, a scherzo with two contrasting trios, played at a considerably slower tempo and marked, Alternativo I and II. The third movement is based on the skocna, a type of reel in 6/8 time and utilizes material from an earlier piano sonata in G minor (1846) as the principal theme alternating with a lyrical theme derived from the first movement of the trio.
Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90 “Dumky”
Antonín Dvořák
For Dvořák chamber music was a natural form of expression. It would fall to him to enlarge upon the nationalistic concepts established by Smetana importing folk-style melodies and dance rhythms of a Slavonic character into the central German traditions. The “Dumky” trio, his fifth and final work for piano trio, was composed between November 1890 and February 1891. Dvořák , an accomplished string player, also must have been a talented pianist as he participated in the first performance given in Prague on April 11, 1891 at a concert celebrating Dvořák’s honorary degree from Prague’s Charles University. The Dumka (plural, Dumky) is a musical form which seems to have originated with Dvořák. It is an instrumental piece characterized by vivid swings of mood and tempo, between sad (slow) and joyful (fast). Its Slavic origins lie in a Little Russian (Ukranian) type folk ballad juxtaposing moods of melancholy and wild elation. Examples of single movements in this style are present in several of Dvořák’s chamber works. Only in this trio did he attempt to create an entire composition out of a succession of such pieces.
The trio consists of six individual Dumka movements. In performance they approximate the typical four-movement chamber work: the first three are played without a pause corresponding to a standard first movement, the fourth Dumka functions as a slow movement, the fifth Dumka resembles a scherzo and the last Dumka is a rondo finale.
The first Dumka, Lento Maestoso, begins with a delicately accompanied duet for the cello and violin giving way to a bright spirited dance, Allegro quasi doppio movimento. A second Dumka reconfigures this material and is dominated by an ethereal tremulo accompaniment played by the piano. The third Dumka, Poco adagio, begins with hushed and plaintive melodic phrases. This is followed by a dance-like section in the key of C-sharp minor, Vivace non troppo, only to be interrupted by a cello cadenza that returns to the music of the Poco adagio and closes with a reprise of the dance music of the Vivace non troppo. The fourth Dumka , which serves as a slow movement, is in ternary form, an elegant Andante in the key of A major, alternating with a dance section in A minor and concluding with a varied return of the music that opened the movement. The fifth Dumka , whichserves as a third movement scherzo, is in the key of D minor marked, Andante moderato (quasai tempo di Marcia) that alternates with a nervous Allegretto scherzando passage, a process repeated three times in an ever expanded and varied configuration. The finale begins stridently in the key of E-flat major with an opening Allegro that introduces the sixth Dumka in C minor, Lento maestoso, and elegiac in tone. This alternates with a dance marked Vivace, Quasi doppio movemeno , a process that is repeated three times in varied forms before ending with a Vivace flourish.
Program notes by James L. Franklin, M.D.
The Chicago Chamber Music Society
P.O. Box 350
Kenilworth, IL 60043
Phone: 847.251.1400
ext. 0