Pinch�s Zuk�rm�n Trio with Sh�i Wo�n�r, pi�no �nd Am�nd�
For�yth, c�llo
Sund�y, Oct. 1 | 3 P�
Sok� P�rformin� Art� C�nt�r
�t Sok� Univ�r�ity of Am�ric�
- Limelight
PROGRAM:
SCHUMANN Phantasiestücke for Piano Trio, Op. 88
Romanze
Humoreske
Duett
Finale
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18
Allegro vivace
Andante
Scherzo: Presto
Allegro INTERMISSION
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”
Allegro vivace e con brio
Largo assai ed espressivo
Presto
Phantasiestücke for Piano Trio, Opus 88
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Died July 29, 1856, Endenich
Robert Schumann’s marriage to Clara Wieck in September 1840 produced one of the most productive three years in any composer’s life. In the year of his marriage Schumann composed over 130 songs, the next year he drafted two symphonies, and in 1842 he turned his energies to chamber music. This was alien territory for Schumann: he did not play a stringed instrument, and he was
all too aware of the achievement of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert in this field. After careful study of string quartets by these composers, he took the plunge and composed three of his own during the months of June and July. That fall he pressed on and wrote his Piano Quintet and also completed–after “constant fearful sleepless nights”–the Piano Quartet in November.
“With Pinchas Zukerman’s matchless musicianship and charisma at its core, this is a trio made in heaven.”
[cont.] These labors may have drained him, emotionally and physically, but he continued to compose chamber works that fall: he next wrote a Piano Trio in A Minor and an Andante and Variations for the unusual combination of two cellos, two pianos, and french horn. But Schumann had reservations about these last two, and he held them back. He returned to the Andante and Variations in the summer of 1843, rescored it for two pianos, and published in that form as his Opus 46. The piano trio, however, remained on his shelf for eight years. Not until the spring of 1850 did Schumann take this music up again, and now he completely rethought it. He kept the same instruments–violin, cello, and piano–but he revised the form of the movements and published the music in 1850 under the title Phantasiestücke, or “Fantasy Pieces.” That title was a Schumann favorite–he used it for three other works as well: for a trio for clarinet, viola, and piano and for two sets of short piano pieces. Implicit in the word fantasy is a freedom from prescribed musical forms, in the present case freedom from the classical sonata-form procedures that govern the standard piano trio. Though the Phantasiestücke are scored for the instruments of the piano trio, not one of the four movements conforms to expected classical forms.
Each of the movements has a title and performance marking in German. A Romanze is a piece without specified form but
of expressive character, and Schumann marks this one Not too fast and with intimate expression The music rocks darkly along it 6/8 meter; most of the melodic interest in this movement lies in the piano part, and the movement comes to a quiet close on the piano’s deep A-minor chords. Humoreske is another title without specified musical form, though that name implies music of a spirited character; Schumann marks this movement Lebhaft: “lively.” It is in ternary form, but with an unusually large number of repeats, and finally this movement too comes to a quiet close, this time on a cadence built upon the movement’s opening theme. The Duett is just that: a melodic duet for the two stringed instruments for which the piano provides an accompaniment of rippling sixteenth-notes. Schumann marks this duet Slowly and with Expression, and the melodic line moves easily between violin and cello. The Finale is marked In March Tempo, and the movement does march smartly along its dotted rhythms. This is another episodic movement: the opening march gives way to more flowing material, which in turn gives way to brisk section written entirely in triplets. This leads to a return of the march and a chordal interlude for piano. The music seems to lose its direction–Schumann marks this closing episode “More and more weak”–until suddenly it regains its focus, and the movement rips to a sudden close on a coda marked Presto.
Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major, Opus 18
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Born October 9, 1835, Paris, Died December 16, 1921, Algiers
Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy of such precociousness that after one boyhood recital he offered to play any of Beethoven’s piano sonatas as an encore–by memory. Liszt called SaintSaëns the finest organist he had ever heard, and the young Frenchman’s playing on both piano and organ was admired throughout Europe. Yet as a composer Saint-Saëns made his mark much more slowly: he was dissatisfied with many of his early compositions and suppressed them; it was not until he was nearly 30 that he began to allow his works to be published.
Saint-Saëns composed his Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major in 1863, when he was 28, and it is one of the earliest of his works to remain in the repertory. The qualities that mark his best mature music–graceful melodies, a sense of elegance and proportion, and an instinctive feeling for form–are all on display here. One of the most striking features of the Piano Trio No. 1 is its mood: throughout, this is sparkling, cheerful, untroubled music, the product of a young man at peace with the world (this trio is said to have been sketched while Saint-Saëns was on a holiday in the Pyrenees). As might be expected, it features wonderful writing for the piano, but this is a trio in the best sense of that form: it depends equally on all three voices for its musical argument.
The sonata-form first movement is based on two graceful ideas, but the impressive thing here (and throughout the trio) is SaintSaëns’ attention to rhythm. He occasionally develops his ideas by treating them not as sequences of intervals but as rhythmic sequences–sometimes themes are reduced to one repetitive note as Saint-Saëns taps out underlying rhythms. The Andante also depends on rhythm, in this case the omnipresent dotted rhythm announced by the piano at the very beginning; a second theme, a flowing violin melody marked espressivo, arrives over murmuring piano accompaniment. Saint-Saëns springs a surprise near the end, where the strings make a soaring digression at a new tempo (Allegretto) before the opening material returns to bring the movement to a quiet close.
The scherzo opens with the distinctive sound of staccato piano and pizzicato strings. This movement is in ABABA form, with the alternating sections based on a sharply-syncopated subject that interrupts the dash of the outer sections; the brief and understated coda is a wonderful touch. The finale, marked simply Allegro, is the most virtuosic of the movements, with brilliant writing for all three instruments, particularly the piano, which is given rippling and athletic runs as this music dashes to its emphatic close.
Piano Trio in D Major, Opus 70, No. 1 “Ghost”
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Died March 26, 1827, Vienna
The exact source of the nickname “Ghost” for this trio is unknown, but it clearly refers to the middle movement, a striking Largo in D minor. This is dark, almost murky music–the piano murmurs a complex accompaniment while the strings twist and extend bits of melody above it. This unusual music (Beethoven rarely marked a movement Largo) has excited a great deal of curiosity about its inspiration. One possibility is particularly intriguing.
Beethoven had worked on his opera Leonore (later renamed Fidelio) from 1804 until 1806. It had not achieved success, and–anxious to try another opera–Beethoven explored many possible subjects. One of these was Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and he and the playwright Heinrich Collin went so far as to discuss a libretto. In fact, Beethoven actually began work on the music for Macbeth, for there are sketches in D minor marked “Macbeth.” Nothing ever came of them, though the idea of an opera based on this play continued to fascinate Beethoven, even in his final years.
But on the same sheet that contains the sketches for Macbeth are the first sketches for the Largo assai ed espressivo movement of this trio, also in D minor. Whether this somber and brooding music, written in 1808, grew out of Beethoven’s projected music for Macbeth
cannot be known for sure, but the connection–however distant–is clearly there, and this movement may be our one hint as to what Beethoven’s music for that tragedy might have been like. Surely it is not too great a leap to imagine this music in conjunction with the witches or Macbeth’s dark final days.
Beethoven frames this remarkable Largo with two fast movements, both in radiant D major. The middle movement is so powerful that the outer movements seem a little light by comparison, and some observers have gone so far as to suggest that they should be seen as prelude and postlude to the Largo. The Allegro vivace e con brio opens with a pithy rhythmic figure that recurs throughout the movement and finally brings it to a close. The main theme is a flowing, elegant idea heard first in the cello and quickly passed between all three instruments. This theme dominates the opening movement, giving it an atmosphere of easy expansiveness. The concluding Presto sounds innocent after the grim pizzicato strokes that end the Largo. It offers long melodic lines, a graceful partnership between the instruments, and a smooth flow of good-spirited music throughout.
Program notes by Eric Bromberger
ABOUT THE ZUKERMAN TRIO
With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today’s most sought after and versatile musicians. A prodigious talent recognized worldwide for his artistry, Zukerman has been an inspiration to young musicians throughout his adult life. In a continuing effort to motivate future generations through education and outreach, the renowned violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician teamed up in 2002 with four protégés to form a string quintet called the Zukerman Chamber Players. The quintet amassed an impressive international touring schedule with close to two hundred concerts and four discs on the CBC, Altara and Sony labels.
The Zukerman Trio emerged out of the Zukerman Chamber Players with an official launch in 2013. Since then, the ensemble
has performed globally in Japan, China, Australia, Spain, Italy, France, Hungary, Canada, South Africa, Istanbul, Russia and Germany. The Trio has appeared at major North American festivals, including Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen, Bravo! Vail and Banff and European festivals in Edinburgh, Verbier and Schleswig Holstein. In 2020, pianist Shai Wosner joined Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth, and the three continue to find joy and inspiration performing the classical trio and duo literature.
In the 2023-24 season, the Zuckerman Trio can be seen in Taormina, Sicily; Stockholm, Sweden; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; and in the US in El Paso, Aliso Viejo and Phoenix. They embark on a European Tour in summer of 2024, including stops in Berlin, Germany; Concabella, Alicante, and Valencia, Spain; and Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland.
“The cleanly articulate performance was elevated by an uncommon passion, both in the tender Adagio and in the finale that shifts abruptly from sadness to joy.”
- The Chicago Tribune
Born in Tel Aviv, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962, where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. The renowned virtuoso has long been admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he earned two GRAMMY® awards and 21 nominations. Zukerman has been awarded a Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence, and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Mr. Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered the use of distancelearning technology in the arts. He proudly joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as an Artistic & Principal Education Partner for their 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. He currently serves as Conductor Emeritus of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, as well as Artistic Director of its Young Artist Program.
Canadian Juno Award-winning Amanda Forsyth is considered one of North America’s most dynamic cellists. Her intense richness of tone, remarkable technique and exceptional musicality combine to enthrall audiences and critics alike. From 1999-2015, Amanda Forsyth was principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, where
she appeared regularly as soloist and in chamber ensembles. She is recognized as an eminent recitalist, soloist and chamber musician appearing with leading orchestras in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. As a recording artist she appears on the Fanfare, Marquis, Pro Arte and CBC labels.
Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire—from Beethoven and Schubert to Ligeti and the music of today—reflect a degree of virtuosity and intellectual curiosity that has made him a favorite among audiences and critics, who note his “keen musical mind and deep musical soul” (NPR’s All Things Considered). Mr. Wosner is a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He is on the faculty at the Longy School of Music in Boston.
To Engage, Educate, and Elevate the Human Spirit…
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More than 750 performances have taken place since the center’s dedication on May 27, 2011. The 2023-24 season marks our twelfth season presenting first-class programming in our world-class concert hall. We are continuing to expand our programming and outreach with the addition of a Children’s Concert Series, Blues Festival, and the only Great Pianists Series on the West Coast. From classical and jazz to world and contemporary music, the Soka Performing Arts Center has become a prized space for artists and audiences alike.
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