Notes on the Program
Trio in A major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Hob. XV:18
Franz Joseph Haydn
Born March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Lower Austria.
Died May 31, 1809 in Vienna.
Composed in 1794.
Duration: 15 minutes
The Trio in A major (XV:18 in Hoboken’s catalog; H.C. Robbins Landon places it as No. 32
in his chronological listing of the trios) was composed during Haydn’s second London visit in
1794. The piece was one of three such works (Nos. 32-34; H. XV:18-20) written for publication
by the local firm of Longman and Broderip; the set was registered at Stationers Hall on
November 17, 1794. The works were dedicated to Princess Marie Hermenegild Esterházy, the
wife of Prince Nikolaus II and one of the more recent additions to the family that employed
Haydn for nearly a half century. Between 1796 and 1802, Haydn wrote six superb Masses for
the annual celebrations at the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt of the Princess’ nameday. She seems to
have been fond of the family’s old music master, and did what she could to make his last years
in Vienna comfortable.
As was typical of the 18th-century genre, Haydn’s A major Piano Trio entrusts most of the
musical argument to the keyboard, with the strings often relegated to augmenting and
doubling roles. Though the piece was written for the growing market of British and Continental
musical amateurs, the music exhibits a mastery of form and style and a breadth of expression
reminiscent of the peerless symphonies that Haydn devised for his London concerts. The work
opens with a genial sonata-form movement that is built almost entirely from the angular but
smoothly flowing motive given in imitation at the outset by the piano. The Andante juxtaposes
melancholy and contented strains in a three-part form (A–B–A). The movement ends on an
inconclusive harmony to lead directly to the finale, a jokey rondo of Gypsy persuasion.
Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello
Jean Françaix
Born May 23, 1912 in Le Mans.
Died September 25, 1997 in Paris.
Composed in 1933.
Duration: 13 minutes
Jean Françaix, the French composer, pianist and advocate of Debussy’s artistic
philosophy of “faire plaisir” (“giving pleasure”), was born into a musical family in Le
Mans in May 1912 — his father was a pianist and composer and director of the Le
Mans Conservatory; his mother taught voice and founded a local chorus. Jean received
his earliest training from his parents but he showed such precocious talent that he was
regularly commuting to Paris for private lessons at the Conservatoire by age nine. He
was much upset by news of the death of Camille Saint-Saëns in that year (1921), and
vowed to his father that he would “take his place” as a musicien français; Françaix’s
earliest published work, a suite for piano, appeared the next year. He settled in Paris a
few years later for regular study at the Conservatoire, where his tutelage was entrusted
to Isidor Philipp for piano and Nadia Boulanger for composition. Françaix won the
Conservatoire’s first prize in piano when he was just eighteen, and two years later he
gained recognition as a composer with a symphony that was premiered in Paris by
Pierre Monteux in November 1932. He played the first performance of his Concertino for
Piano and Orchestra with much success in 1934, and came to international prominence
when he presented the work at a festival of contemporary music in Baden-Baden two
years later. He subsequently made numerous tours throughout Europe and the United
States as composer and pianist. The 1933 ballet Scuola di ballo, choreographed by
Léonide Massine for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, marked Françaix’s entry into
the genres of musical theater, for which he produced five operas, sixteen ballets, and
many film scores before his death in Paris on September 25, 1997. His large output also
includes some four-dozen orchestral pieces (many calling for one or more solo
instruments), numerous chamber works (for which he favored wind instruments),
songs, an oratorio (L’apocalypse de St. Jean), and a considerable amount of music for
accompanied chorus. American musicologist David Ewen wrote of the idiom that
characterized Françaix’s works throughout his life: “In his music, Françaix is as Gallic
as his name. Lightness of touch, effervescence of spirit, irony that sometimes
approaches malice, briskness of movement — the vein so many French composers
adopt with such skill — are found in all of Françaix’s major works. He was greatly
influenced by the neo-classical manner of Stravinsky, to a point where slender form,
conciseness, brevity, simplicity, and clarity of writing become almost a fetish. But there
is enough acidity in the harmony and robustness in the rhythm to give his music
contemporary spice.”
Françaix’s Trio for Strings, from 1933, opens with an agile movement based on a
brittle theme that returns frequently enough to suggest the form of a rondo. The
sparkling Scherzo is witty and insouciant; the central trio is delightfully oafish with its
missed entrances and dropped beats. The slow, plaintive song of the third movement
serves as an expressive foil for the energy of the surrounding music. A zesty rondo built
on a fanfare motive closes the Trio.
Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 87
Antonín Dvořák
Born September 8, 1841 in Nelahozeves, Bohemia.
Died May 1, 1904 in Prague.
Composed in 1889.
Premiered on November 23, 1890 in Prague by Hanus Trnecek (piano), Ferdinand Lachner
(violin), Petr Mares (viola), and Hanus Wihan (cello).
Duration: 35 minutes
By the time that Dvořák undertook his Piano Quartet in E-flat major in 1889, when he was
nearing the age of 50, he had risen from his humble and nearly impoverished beginnings to
become one of the most respected musicians in his native Bohemia and throughout Europe
and America. He was invited to become Professor of Composition at the Prague Conservatory at
the beginning of the year, but refused the offer after much careful thought in order to continue
devoting himself to creative work and touring as a conductor of his music. In February, his
opera The Jacobin enjoyed a great success at its premiere in Prague, and the following month
his orchestral concert in Dresden received splendid acclaim. In May, the Emperor Franz Josef
awarded him the distinguished Austrian Iron Cross, and a few months later, he received an
honorary doctorate from Cambridge University. Dvořák composed his Second Piano Quartet at
his country home in Vysoká during the summer of 1889, the time between receiving these last
two honors, in response to repeated requests from his publisher in Berlin, Fritz Simrock, who
had been badgering him for at least four years to provide a successor to the Piano Quartet, Op.
23 of 1875. The new composition was begun on July 10th, and completed quickly within five
weeks, evidence of the composer’s testimony to his friend Alois Göbl that his head was so full of
ideas during that time that he regretted he could not write them down fast enough; he
completed his boundlessly lyrical Symphony No. 8 just two months later. Simrock published
the score of the Quartet early in 1890, and the premiere was given in Prague by Hanus Trnecek
(piano), Ferdinand Lachner (violin), Petr Mares (viola), and Hanus Wihan (cello) in November of
that year.
The Quartet’s first movement follows a freely conceived sonata form. To launch the work,
the unison strings present the bold main theme, which immediately elicits a capricious
response from the piano. Following a grand restatement of the opening theme by the assembled
forces and a transition based on a jaunty rhythmic motive, the viola introduces the arching
subsidiary subject. The intricately worked development section is announced by a recall of the
theme that began the movement. A varied recapitulation of the earlier materials rounds out the
movement. “The Lento,” wrote Otakar Sourek in his study of the composer’s chamber works, “is
among the loveliest slow movements in thought-content and the most deeply moving in mood
that Dvořák created.” This movement is unusual in its structure, consisting of a large musical
chapter comprising five distinct thematic entities played twice. The cello presents the first
melody, a lyrical phrase that Sourek believed was “an expression of deep, undisturbed peace.”
The delicate second motive, given in a leisurely, unruffled manner by the violin, is even more
beatific in mood. A sense of agitation is injected into the music by the animated third theme,
entrusted to the piano, and rises to a peak of intensity with the stormy fourth strain, which is
argued by the entire ensemble. Calm is restored by the piano’s closing melody. This thematic
succession is repeated with only minor changes before the movement is brought to a quiet and
touching end. The third movement, the Quartet’s scherzo, contrasts waltz-like outer sections
with a central trio reminiscent of a fiery Middle Eastern dance. The finale, like the opening
Allegro, follows a fully realized sonata form in which an energetic main theme (which
stubbornly maintains its unsettled minor tonality for much of the movement) is contrasted with
a lyrically inspired second subject, first allotted to the cello. A rousing coda of almost
symphonic breadth closes this handsome work of Dvořák’s maturity.
©2011 Dr. Richard E. Rodda