Classical Music | Violin Music

Johannes Brahms

Piano Trio No. 3 in c minor, Op. 101  Play

Arianna Warsaw-Fan Violin
Jonathan Dormand Cello
Andrei Licaret Piano

Recorded on 07/11/2010, uploaded on 10/13/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Johannes Brahms’s last piano trio (if one does not count the 1889 version of the Piano Trio No. 1 in B major as a composition in its own right) is a remarkable example of the economy and profundity of his later music. Composed in 1886 while he spent the summer at the Swiss resort of Hofstetten, the Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor was one of three exquisite chamber works produced that summer, the others being the Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major and the Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major.

The startlingly aspect of the Third Piano Trio is its succinctness, which even surprised Brahms’s close friends. Marked Allegro energico, the first movement begins with an emotional eruption not often heard in Brahms’s chamber music. The following second subject then fully displays his superb ability at melodic and structural construction for, though it assumes the accepted role of lyrical contrast, it manages to only heighten the argument set out by the first theme. The development section is brief, concluding in the remote key of C-sharp minor, and even the recapitulation is abbreviated. Despite an expanded return of the second subject in the tonic major, the movement ends in the minor.

Also in the key of C minor, the following Scherzo is a delicate movement in duple meter. Its suppressed utterance, though perhaps not its temperament, may bring to mind the hushed Scherzo of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major. Here, everything seems viewed through a haze and there is the ominous feeling of suppressed emotions. No true Trio section emerges—only a central episode in F minor that flows naturally out of the Scherzo.

The following Andante grazioso in C major opens with a tranquil melody in the strings, gracefully alternating between 3/4 and 2/4 time. Throughout much of the movement, strings and piano take turns presenting the melody. A central section, switching the meters to their compound counterparts, forms an agitated contrast to the peaceful outer sections and later serves as the basis for the movement’s brief coda.

Essentially another scherzo movement (the second movement was actually in cut-time), the Finale immediately takes flight with a restless energy, which at times borders on the temperament of the first movement. Towards the end of the movement, the music brightens into C major and a moment of tenderness is almost attained in approaching the coda. However, the vigorous energy is renewed and the piece closes in an almost brusque manner.      Joseph DuBose

  
courtesy of the Steans Music Institute


Steans Music Institute

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.