In many ways I found yesterday's matinee by the Jupiter Symphony Players to be more compelling than that I attended two weeks ago and about which I've previously posted. The reason? The program consisted entirely of lesser known works I'd never before encountered but that I thought were nevertheless of high quality and well worth the time spent listening. The theme of the recital centered on the interrelationship of German and Russian music and began with three pieces from the early nineteenth century by Beethoven, Hummel and Glinka followed by a twentieth century piano trio by Sergei Taneyev.
The program opened with Beethoven's 12 Variations on a Russian Dance from Das Waldmädchen in A major, WoO 71 (1796). As Drew Petersen - the pianist for this solo work (as well as for all the other pieces performed at the recital) - pointed out, Beethoven was fond of variations when he first began his career and often played them extemporaneously as requested by the audience. Such may very well have been the origin of this particular work, and it's entirely possible Beethoven only troubled to write down the music after having performed it in recital. The composer's first published work, the WoO 66, was in fact exactly such a set of improvised variations and helped build his initial reputation as both a pianist and composer to be reckoned with. In any event, the work was a pleasant enough piece from Beethoven's earliest period in Vienna. An interesting footnote here is the authorship of the ballet Das Waldmädchen itself. While generally attributed to Paul Wranitzky, the ensemble's website claims it was instead composed by the violinist Giovanni Giornovichi.
The next work was Johann Hummel's Adagio, Variations and Rondo on Schöne Minka, Op. 78 (1818). The original Schöne Minka ("Pretty Minka") was a well known Ukrainian folk song whose popularity inspired any number of arrangements among classical composers of the time. Beethoven himself took it on in his Variations, Op. 107, but it is Hummel's arrangement for flute, cello and piano that is most highly regarded today. The work is an exceptionally polished piece and must have been quite entertaining to the Viennese audiences who first heard it.
The mood changed substantially as the ensemble moved to the next piece, Mikhail Glinka's Trio Pathétique (1832) for clarinet, bassoon and piano. Although Glinka is widely referred to as the "Father of Russian Music," primarily for his influence on many of his country's other composers, the trio is from his middle period before he had fully incorporated Russian folk idioms into his own compositions and was still heavily affected by German and Italian musical styles. Yet the tone of the work is quite different from that of the Viennese pieces played earlier. Glinka had already returned to St. Petersburg from Berlin at the time he wrote the trio and shortly thereafter in 1836 composed one of his most highly regarded works, the opera A Life for the Tsar.
After intermission, the program concluded with Sergei Taneyev's Piano Trio in D major, Op. 22 (1906-1908). Again, there is no mistaking the Russian spirit in this powerful and emotional work. Taneyev himself is best remembered today as the object of Sofia Tolstoy's unrequited love. (The novelist himself reacted to his wife's infatuation by penning The Kreutzer Sonata, a novella most notable for its graphic descriptions of the sexual jealousy that eventually led the protagonist to murder his wife.) Taneyev was also a close confidante of Tchaikovsky, under whom he had studied composition, and the only one whom that composer allowed to freely criticize his work. At any rate, the performance of Taneyev's piano trio at yesterday's recital was truly remarkable. Drew Petersen on piano was joined by Mayuko Kamio on violin and Gabriel Cabezas on cello. This was the really best I've heard this ensemble play and I was happy to give a standing ovation at the end of the work.
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