7 minute read
Inon Barnatan, Philippe Quint, & Alisa Weilerstein (Wu Tsai QRT.yrd
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2021 11:30 AM & 2:30 PM
WU TSAI QRT.yrd FRANCK Sonata in A Major for Cello and Piano
(1822-1890)
Allegretto ben moderato Allegro Recitativo–Fantasia Allegretto poco mosso Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Inon Barnatan, piano ARENSKY Piano Trio in D Minor, Opus 32
(1861-1906) Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Elegia: Adagio
Finale: Allegro non troppo Inon Barnatan, piano; Philippe Quint, violin; Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan and Alisa Weilerstein last performed for La Jolla Music Society during SummerFest on August 30, 2020. Philippe Quint last performed for La Jolla Music Society during SummerFest on August 6, 2019.
Born December 10, 1822, Liège, Belgium Died November 8, 1890, Paris Composed: 1886 Approximate Duration: 29 minutes
This cello sonata is an arrangement, made shortly after Franck’s death by the French cellist Jules Delsart, of his Violin Sonata in A Major, originally composed in 1886. This sonata is one of the finest examples of Franck’s use of cyclic form, a technique he had adapted from his friend Franz Liszt, in which themes from one movement are transformed and used over subsequent movements. The Sonata in A Major is a particularly ingenious instance of this technique: virtually the entire work is derived from the quiet and unassuming opening of the first movement, which then evolves endlessly across the sonata. Even when a new theme seems to arrive, it will gradually be revealed as a subtle variant of one already heard.
The piano’s quiet fragmented chords at the beginning of the Allegretto ben moderato suggest a theme-shape that the cello takes over as it enters: this will be the thematic cell of the entire sonata. The piano has a more animated second subject (it takes on the shape of the germinal theme as its proceeds), but the gently-rocking cello figure from the opening dominates this movement, and Franck reminds the performers constantly to play molto dolce, sempre dolce, dolcissimo.
The mood changes completely at the fiery second movement, marked passionato, and some critics have gone so far as to claim that this Allegro is the true first movement and that the opening Allegretto should be regarded as an introduction to this movement. In any case, this movement contrasts its blazing opening with more lyric episodes, and listeners will detect the original theme-shape flowing through some of these.
The Recitativo–Fantasia is the most original movement in the sonata. The piano’s quiet introduction seems at first a re-visiting of the germinal theme, though it is— ingeniously—a variant of the passionato opening of the second movement. The cello makes its entrance with an improvisation-like passage (this is the fantasia of the title), and the entire movement is quite free in both structure and expression: moments of whimsy alternate with passionate outbursts.
After the expressive freedom of the third movement, the finale restores order with pristine clarity: it is a canon in octaves, with one voice following the other at the interval of a measure. The stately canon theme, marked dolce cantabile, is a direct descendant of the sonata’s opening theme, and as this movement proceeds it recalls thematic material from earlier movements. Gradually, the music takes on unexpected power and drives to a massive coda and a thunderous close.
Franck wrote this sonata for his fellow Belgian, the great violinist Eugene Ysaÿe, who gave the première in Brussels in November 1886. The composer Vincent D'Indy recalled that première:
The violin and piano sonata was performed . . . in one of the rooms of the Museum of Modern Painting at Brussels. The seance, which began at three o'clock, had been very long, and it was rapidly growing dark. After the first Allegretto of the sonata, the performers could scarcely read the music. Now the official regulations forbade any light whatever in rooms which contained paintings. Even the striking of a match would have been matter for offense. The public was about to be asked to leave, but the audience, already full of enthusiasm, refused to budge. Then Ysaÿe was heard to strike his music stand with his bow, exclaiming [to the pianist], “Allons! Allons!” [“Let’s go!”] And then, unheard-of marvel, the two artists, plunged in gloom . . . performed the last three movements from memory, with a fire and passion the more astounding to the listeners in that there was an absence of all externals which could enhance the performance. Music, wondrous and alone, held sovereign sway in the darkness of night.
Piano Trio in D Minor, Opus 32 ANTON ARENSKY
Born July 12, 1861, Novgorod, Russia Died February 25, 1906, Terioki, Finland Composed: 1894 Approximate Duration: 30 minutes
The son of two passionate amateur musicians, Anton Stepanovich Arensky had his first piano lessons from his mother and was already composing by age nine. He studied with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and received the gold medal on his graduation in 1882. That same year, at age 21, Arensky became professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory, where he was a friend and colleague of Tchaikovsky and taught Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Gliere (the grateful
Rachmaninoff dedicated his first tone poem, Prince Rostislav, to his teacher). Arensky served as head of the Imperial Chapel in St. Petersburg from 1895 until 1901, when he retired on a generous pension and devoted himself to composition and to performing. But those plans were cut short: Arensky died at age 44 from tuberculosis, and Rimsky-Korsakov noted grimly that his early death had been hastened by a lifelong fondness for cards and alcohol.
Arensky was a prolific composer—he wrote three operas, ballet, symphonies, concertos, and chamber music—but almost all of this music has disappeared from the concert hall: of his 75 opus numbers, only the Piano Trio in D Minor remains an established part of the repertory. Arensky wrote this trio in 1894 and dedicated it to the memory of Russian cellist Karl Davidov (1838-1889), who had served for several years as principal cellist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and who had been head of the St. Petersburg Conservatory when Arensky was a student there. Arensky has been described as an “eclectic” composer, and the influence of Tchaikovsky is strong here. Some have also heard the influence of Mendelssohn, whose own Piano Trio in D Minor is one of the most famous in the literature.
The opening Allegro moderato is a big movement in sonata form based on two principal ideas: the violin’s soaring opening melody and a more subdued second subject announced by the cello. The movement is dramatic, but Arensky surprises us with its conclusion: he slows the tempo to Adagio, and after all the excitement the movement comes to an unexpectedly quiet conclusion. The ternary-form Scherzo has a brilliant beginning where the violinist alternates harmonics, spiccatos, and pizzicatos over swirling piano runs; the middle section is a good-natured waltz with the strings dancing above the piano’s rollicking accompaniment. Rather than offering a da capo repeat of the opening section, Arensky fashions a new closing section from that same material.
The third movement, marked Elegia, is the memorial for Davidov, and Arensky has the muted cello—Davidov’s own instrument—introduce the grieving main theme, which is quickly picked up by the violin. The delicate center section of this movement sounds the most “Tchaikovsky-an,” but this sunlight is short-lived, and the somber opening material returns to bring the movement to its close.
The opening of the finale seems consciously dramatic, built on contrasting blocks of sound: the piano’s massive dotted chords and string passagework in octaves and tremolos make for a portentous beginning. All seems set for a conventional spirited finale, but the conclusion brings some surprises: just as Beethoven had done in the finale of his Ninth Symphony, Arensky now revisits themes from earlier movements, bringing back the middle section of the slow movement and the opening theme of the first movement. The trio concludes with a brisk coda derived from the opening of the finale itself.
Arensky was the pianist at the première of the Trio in D Minor in December 1894, when he was joined by violinist Jan Hrímaly and cellist Anatoly Brandukov. Shortly after that premiere, those three recorded the trio on wax cylinders in what was one of the earliest recordings ever made of classical music. The performance is not complete, and the sound is dim, but that recording takes us back over a century in time to Imperial Russia and lets us hear Arensky play. Those interested can find excerpts of that recording on YouTube.
