Obbrussel Musica

PROGRAMMA - PROGRAMME

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Preludes en fuga’s uit “Das wohltemperierte Klavier” (arrangement voor viool & cello en voor strijktrio)
Préludes et fugues du “Clavier bien tempéré” (arrangement pour violon & violoncelle et pour trio à cordes)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Strijktrio in do kleinOpus 9 nr. 3 (1797-1798)
Trio à cordes en do mineur Opus 9 nr. 3 (1797-1798)

Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)

Duo Nr. 2 voor viool & cello (1958)
Duo Nr. 2 pour violon & violoncelle (1958)

Gideon Klein (1919-1945)

Strijktrio (1944)
Trio à cordes (1944)

DATUM & PLAATS - DATE & LIEU

26 november 2010 om 20u30 – Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif
Munthofstraat 52, 1060 Sint-Gillis

26 novembre 2010 à 20h30 -Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif
Rue de l’Hôtel des Monnaies 52, 1060 Saint-Gilles

ARTIESTEN - ARTISTES

Michael Guttman - viool – violon
Anne Leonardo - altviool – alto
Stijn Kuppens- cello – violoncelle

SPECIAL GUEST: Tcha Limberger

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) – Strijktrio in do klein Opus 9 nr. 3 (1797-1798) – Trio à cordes en do mineur Opus 9 nr. 3 (1797-1798)

1. Allegro con spirito

2. Adagio con espressione
3. Scherzo. Allegro molto e vivace
4. Finale. Presto

If the Op. 9 Trios represent a leap forward for Beethoven in the chamber genre—and potentially in the symphonic realm, as well—this C minor work, which shares its key with several heroic compositions of the composer including the Fifth Symphony (and with the more contemporary Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 10/1), stands as the most powerful and angst-ridden, if not the greatest, of the three—and quite the darkest and most intense. Some will also hear the work as the most symphonic in scope and the most profound. Still, the Op. 9/1 G major Trio may be the strongest of the three; indeed, Beethoven himself considered it the finest.

At the time the composer wrote these three Trios he was a bit hesitant to enter the realm of the symphony and may well have viewed them as a means to test his still-evolving ideas about development, structure and other elements associated with the sonata-allegro form.

The first movement of the C minor Trio is marked Allegro con spirito and begins with a four-note scale played by all three instruments. This unison opening seems to set the egalitarian pattern for the instruments, as none of the three is allowed a dominant role in the movement. The four-note motif appears throughout the movement, perhaps most dramatically to launch the development section, where it is heard in emphatic chords. The movement’s thematic wares are developed here and the mood intensifies. The four-note theme appears as it did at the outset to initiate the reprise. The development and recapitulation are repeated and a vigorous coda closes the movement.

The second movement is marked Adagio con espressione and is somewhat dark and melancholy, containing elements of struggle and doubt, especially in the middle section. There are two themes, the latter of which is serene but tinged with a sorrowful aura. As suggested, the middle section features great intensity and a sense of struggle, with the music seeming to cry out in places. The themes return and the music ends quietly.

The third movement Scherzo is marked Allegro molto e vivace. The main theme has an anxious, rather typically Beethovenian hurried quality about it. But there is also something painful and agitated about its character. The trio section in contrast is reserved and nonchalant. The thematic material is reprised and the movement ends with a brilliant coda whose dynamics gradually soften to a whisper at the close.

The finale is a Rondo, marked Presto. In the first of the Op. 9 Trios, the G major, Beethoven broke with his own tradition of always making his Presto finales a Rondo. Here, he rehabilitates it with this movement, whose demeanor is driving and restless in the main theme, perhaps suggestive of darker elements. A second theme is presented that maintains the anxious, somewhat uncertain mood. The development section features some playfulness in the handling, especially of the main theme. The recapitulation follows but with many changes in the previous materials, and the work concludes with a coda whose pianissimo ending is brilliantly-wrought.

The C minor Trio was first published along with its Op. 9 siblings in Vienna in 1798, carrying a dedication to one of the composer’s patrons, Count Johann Georg von Browne, an officer in the Russian Army. A typical performance of the C minor Trio lasts between twenty and twenty-five minutes.

Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) – Duo Nr. 2 voor viool & cello (1958) – Duo Nr. 2 pour violon & violoncelle (1958)

1. Allegretto
2. Adagio
3. Poco Allegro

The extremely prolific Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu rarely stopped writing music. Even after he had been diagnosed with cancer in 1958, he continued to compose copiously, completing his last opera The Greek Passion and his oratorio The Prophecy of Isaiah in the year before his death. But despite these major works and his increasing ill health, Martinu found time to compose numerous chamber works, including his second Duo for Violin and Cello (H. 371). Written in four days between June 28 and July 1, 1958, the Duo in D major gives no sign that its composer was a dying man with only 13 months to live. Like all of Martinu’s music, the Duo is essentially lyrical with long, gorgeous melodies that defy gravity as well as the bar line and, like most of Martinu’s music, the Duo has lightly sprung rhythms in its outer movements that draw as much on Renaissance materialists as on modernist composers. But in its central Adagio, Martinu’s melodies seem particularly poignant and his harmonies seem especially affecting, almost as if even the resolutely sanguine Martinu was musically acknowledging his own mortality.

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Gideon Klein (1919-1945) – Strijktrio (1944) – Trio à cordes (1944)

Gideon Klein was born in 1919 in Prerov, Czechoslovakia, a Moravian Jew. He studied composition with Alois Haba at the Prague Conservatory and musicology at Charles University in Prague. He was forced to discontinue his studies in 1940 because of the Nuremberg Laws. Since compositions and performances by Jewish musicians were banned, his own works could not be played, though he continued in his career as concert pianist by assuming several pseudonyms. Klein was sent to Theresienstadt a month after it opened in 1941. He was very active in all aspects of the musical life in the camp. He formed chamber ensembles, organized solo concerts and performed the works of Bach, Mozart, Brahms, and his countryman, Janacek, as well as his own compositions and those of other composers living in the camp.

The String Trio was Gideon Klein’s last composition, completed on October 9, 1944, nine days before he was shipped off to Auschwitz. It is a tribute to Klein and the human spirit that such a wonderful life-affirming work could be written under such circumstances. The first and third movements of this three movement work are filled with allusions to the folk music of his native region, and indeed the second movement is a set of variations on a Moravian folk song. It is work which compares favorably with that of Janacek, Kodaly, and Szymanowski. Klein died in the Furstengrubbe concentration camp January 1945 at the age of 25.