Yesterday evening's chamber music recital at Mannes consisted of three pieces, two by Schubert and one by his contemporary Weber.
Schubert's Introduction and Seven Variations on Trockne Blumen (1824), the only piece he ever wrote for flute and piano, opened the program. It is based on the eighteenth song (translated as Withered Flowers) of the cycle Die schöne Mullerin. Though not often performed, this is a major work that displays the full range of Schubert's genius. The flute part in particular is extremely complex. As the work predates Boehm's development of the modern concert flute, the part must have put even greater demands on Ferdinand Bogner, the virtuoso flautist for whom the work was originally composed, than it does on today's musicians. This may also help explain why the work did not enter the standard repertoire until several decades after Schubert's death.
Carl Maria von Weber's Trio for Flute, Piano and Cello in G minor (1819) followed. This is a refined and polished piece that displays little of the stormy Romanticism that so impressed Wagner and Berlioz in Weber's operas Der Freischütz and Oberon. Instead, the work is pleasant and accessible, and its elegant style gives the musicians numerous opportunities to display their talents.
In contrast to the two little known pieces that made up the first half of the program, Schubert's Piano Quintet in A, Die Forelle (1819) is one of the best known works in the chamber repertoire. As with Trockne Blumen, the work consists of a set of variations on one of Schubert's lieder, here Die Forelle (The Trout). Perhaps because it was written when the composer was only 22, long before the onset of the medical problems that led to his tragic early death, the tone of the work is almost entirely joyous and carefree. If it lacks the deeply introspective character of Schubert's later works, it makes up for it with a youthful exuberance that cannot help but raise the listener's spirits. At least it always does mine.
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