Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello
Pierre Jalbert
Born November 15, 1967 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Composed in 1998.
Premiered on August 29, 1998 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina by pianist Rachel Matthews,
violinist Amy Appold, and cellist Ben Wolff.
Duration: 15 minutes
Pierre Jalbert was born in Manchester, New Hampshire on November 15, 1967 into a family
originally from Quebec and grew up in northern Vermont, where he began piano lessons at age
five and became familiar with traditional French and English folk songs and Catholic liturgical
music, whose simplicity, austerity, and expressive immediacy have remained important
influences on his creative style. He did his undergraduate work in piano and composition at
the Oberlin Conservatory and completed a doctorate in composition at the University of
Pennsylvania, with George Crumb as his principal teacher. Jalbert received a Rome Prize in
2000 and gained international recognition the following year when he won First Prize in the
BBC’s Masterprize Competition for his orchestral work In Aeternam, which was selected from
more than 1,100 scores by a jury that included Marin Alsop, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and Sir
Charles Mackerras. His other distinctions include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two BMI
Foundation Composition Awards, three ASCAP Foundation Awards, Society of Composers
Award, Bearns Prize in Composition, Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship, Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center’s Elise L. Stoeger Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award,
and Distinguished Composer of the Year from the Music Teachers National Association. He has
also held residencies with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2002-2005), Chicago’s Music in
the Loft Chamber Music Series (2003), and California Symphony (1999-2002). Jalbert joined
the faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston in 1996, and he is now
Professor of Composition and Theory at the school.
Jalbert wrote that his Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello, composed in 1998 and premiered on
August 29, 1998 at the Foothills Music Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, “is in two
movements of extremely contrasting character. The first movement, Life Cycle, consists of four
sections. Each section contains the same quick pulse; while the music changes considerably
from section to section (and includes a jazz riff), the basic pulse or beat remains constant. (I
heard my son’s heartbeat for the first time a few months into my wife’s pregnancy and was very
surprised at how rapid it was. This rapid pulse became the basis for the first movement.)
“The second movement, Agnus Dei, represents the sacred and is mysterious and lyrical in
character. The structure of the movement is modeled after the three-part form of the Agnus Dei
prayer:
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
“It opens with a violin melody, full of pitch bends, played over a cello drone. This melody is
then passed on to the cello, finally cadencing with all three instruments. This material is then
repeated (much like the repetition of the second line in the prayer) but at a different pitch level.
The music then moves on to a more developmental section, still containing the original tune,
but ultimately ends up in a different place (much like the last line of the prayer).
“While I was working on this movement, Mother Teresa of Calcutta passed away. I
therefore chose to dedicate this movement to her life and works.”
Quartet in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 25
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg.
Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna.
Composed in 1861.
Premiered on November 16, 1862 in Vienna by the composer as pianist and members of the
Hellmesberger Quartet.
Duration: 40 minutes
Brahms was extremely demanding of himself in his compositions, and he made numerous
attempts at writing a chamber piece before he allowed the publication of his Piano Trio, Op. 8
in 1854. (He destroyed at least three earlier efforts in that form.) The following year, he turned
to writing quartets for piano, violin, viola, and cello, a genre whose only precedents were the
two by Mozart and a single specimen by Schumann. Work on the quartets did not go smoothly,
however, and he laid one (in C minor, eventually Op. 60) aside for almost two decades, and
tinkered with the other two for the next half-dozen years in Hamburg and at his part-time post
as music director for the court Lippe-Detmold, midway between Frankfurt and Hamburg.
Brahms was principally based in Hamburg during those years, usually staying with his
parents, but in 1860, when he was 27 years old and eager to find the quiet and privacy to work
on his compositions, he rented spacious rooms (“a quite charming flat with a garden,” he said)
in the suburb of Hamm from one Frau Dr. Elisabeth Rössing, a neighbor of two members of the
local women’s choir he was then directing. Hamm was to be his home for the next two years,
and there he worked on the Variations on a Theme of Schumann for Piano Duet (Op. 23), the
Handel Variations (Op. 24), and the Piano Quartets in G minor (Op. 25) and A major (Op. 26).
Brahms dedicated the A major Quartet to his hospitable landlady. The two piano quartets were
finally finished by early autumn 1861, and given a private reading by some unknown local
musicians and Clara Schumann during her visit to Hamm shortly thereafter. The public
premiere of the G minor Quartet was given by Brahms and the quartet of Joseph
Hellmesberger, director of the Vienna Conservatory, on November 16, 1862, during the
composer’s first visit to Vienna.
The opening movement of the G minor Piano Quartet contains an abundance of thematic
material woven into a seamless continuum through Brahms’ consummate contrapuntal skill.
Balanced within its closely reasoned sonata form are pathos and vigor, introspection and
jubilance, storm and tranquility. The second movement (Intermezzo), cast in the traditional
form of scherzo and trio, is formed from long-spun melodies in gentle, rocking rhythms. The
Andante is in a broad three-part structure, with the middle section taking on a snappy martial
air. The Gypsy Rondo finale is a spirited essay much in the style of Brahms’ invigorating
Hungarian Dances.
©2010 Dr. Richard E. Rodda