Mannes Chamber Music: Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Brahms

Yesterday evening's chamber recital at Mannes featured the music of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Brahms.

I have previously posted of having heard Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances for Two Pianos, Op. 45 (1940) performed at Mannes last month as part of its Piano Department's series of recitals.  Yesterday was a reprise of that performance with the same two talented students at the keyboards as before.  I enjoyed the piece even more on second hearing.  The piano version reduces the orchestral work to its underlying themes and allows the listener to better understand the composer's intentions; but I cannot help but prefer the richness of the orchestral version with its lush tones, including that provided by the saxophone in the first movement, all the more so after having heard it recently performed at Carnegie Hall by the Mariinsky Orchestra.

Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, op. 69 (1808) is headed on the manuscript Inter Lacrimas et Luctum ("Amid Tears and Sorrow") in a reference that possibly has more to do with the unhappiness in the composer's personal life than it does with the music.  It was written at exactly the same time as the Fifth and Sixth symphonies at the height of his middle period.  This is the second time in the space of a week that Mannes students have performed a Beethoven cello sonata.  They had previously played his Cello Sonata No. 5 in D, Op. 102, No. 2 (1815).  It was interesting to compare that later work with the one written seven years earlier and to note the differences in the composer's style as he moved forward toward his final works.

Brahms' Piano Trio in B Major, op. 8 no. 1, although written in 1854, was revised extensively in 1889.  It is the later version that was played yesterday evening.  The very fact, though, that Brahms did not withdraw the original version from publication indicates he may have had some reservations about the changes he made as well as some fondness for the original. In its first incarnation, the work displayed the deep impact the romantic movement had had on Brahms.  He even wrote on the the manuscript "Kreisler junior" in reference to an E.T.A. Hoffmann character.  Brahms composed the original piece several months after having met Robert and Clara Schumman in September 1853, and it was only weeks after he had finished it that Robert attempted to drown himself and had to be institutionalized for the remainder of his life. But in spite of this tragedy, Clara still found time to offer encouragement to the young composer and to recommend the trio to her publisher.  Though in its revised form the work may be much more tightly organized, it still fully conveys the romantic ethos that originally inspired it.