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Ludwig
van Beethoven: String Trio Op.9 n.1
Manuel Maria Ponce: Trio para
violin, viola y violoncelo
world
premiére recording
Ernst
von Dohnanyi: Serenade Op.10
Label:
Sound
Image
(2004) |
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time:
60'45''
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tracks:
1-13
booklet
languages: Italiano / English / Deutsch
Recording:
Casa Fioroni (Rovereto – TN)
7-8 September 2004
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Composed
between
1796 and 1798 (the year of publishing),
the Trios op.9 for violin,
viola and cello by L. VAN BEETHOVEN
(1770-1827) were dedicated by the
composer to his patron, the Count Johann
Georg von Browne-Camus with
the comment “la meilleure de [me]
oeuvres”. Despite of having been
neglected by musicians and critic,
Giovanni Carlo Ballola considers
them “the most intense and perfect work of
the early Beethoven,
absolutely worth staying beside the
successive six Quartets [op. 18,
1798-1800] and in parts even more splendid
in their profundity,
masterly and stylistic maturity”. Actually
the author demonstrates his
ability in the use of the tone-quality
using a dense polyphonic
structure and thus melting harmony and
melody in an extraordinary way.
Though of different characters, they show
the same inclination towards
a dense quality of processing, for
contrasting sounds and colours and
for a certain brilliancy, even in the most
melancholic moments of the
Adagios. Particularly in the Trio op.9
no.1 we can notice that the
composer was inspired by the Divertimento
K 563 by Mozart (the work
that, maybe for the first time, revealed
all the potentiality of the
formation violin-viola-cello). The
greatest similarities we can find in
the two central movements: In the Adagio,
in which the both relaxed and
introverted melody contrasts with a steady
and partly fragmentary
harmony, and then in the Scherzo, which
contains, strangely enough, two
Trios. In 1924 A. Schmidt published the
second Trio based on
Beethoven's handwriting on a single sheet
of a manuscript, with the
composer's comment: “Das 2te Trio
muß zum Einlegen geschrieben
werden” (the 2nd Trio as an additional
piece). Thus the 3rd movement
shows the following structure (similar to
Mozart's 2nd Minuet in his
Divertimento K 563): Scherzo – Trio I –
Scherzo (variation) – Trio II –
Scherzo. The first movement – after the
slow introduction of the Adagio
introduttivo – displays the splendid,
strong and expansive theme of the
Allegro con brio, which is developed later
with serious contrapunctical
strictness. The piece ends with the
frenzied final movement Presto, in
which, however, one can also find some
lyric episodes.
MANUEL MARIA PONCE
(1886-1948), an important Mexican
composer, completed his musical
studies in Europe (1904), improving
himself in piano with Martin Krause
in Berlin, in composition with Marco
Enrico Bossi, Luigi Tocchi and
Cesare Dall’Oglio in Bologna and – at the
age of more than forty, from
1929 to 1932 – with Paul Dukas in Paris.
In 1909 he returned to Mexico,
becoming a teacher of piano at the
National Conservatory, and director
of the Beethoven Academy, founded by
himself, free-lance journalist and
musical critic. For two years (1915-1917)
he stayed in Cuba, continuing
his teacher- and journalist’s activities.
When returned to Mexico City
he started again teaching at the
Conservatory and became conductor of
the National Symphonic Orchestra. Due to
his acquaintance with Andres
Segovia he was encouraged to write an
important corpus of guitar-works.
Apart from these pieces, he composed eight
works for orchestra, a lot
of chamber compositions, a violin- and a
piano concert, pieces for
organ and piano solo, more than 250 songs
and several chorals. His
works, inspired by the Indian Mexican
folklore, contributed essentially
to the development of the musical
nationalism in Mexico. His Trio para
violin, viola y violoncello, dedicated to
the siblings Cecile, Carlos
and Carlito Prieto, presents very clearly
his style, in which he
creates tonal amalgams adhering to the
rules of the classic harmony to
a system based on the fourth-interval.
Formally his style is based on
the european musical tradition. In the
Allegro non troppo, espressivo
the author recovers a scheme in forma
sonata which accurately adheres
to each academic rule (themes, proportions
and even tonality), however,
without being a pupil's work. The three
lines of the instruments
intertwine softly and reveal an absolute
chamber music-conception of
the string trio. In the Minuetto the
violin and the viola play a
canone, based on the contrapuntic
imitation by the cello. In the themes
the composer reveals his inclination to
the latin-american traditional
music, e.g. in the third movement,
Canción, reciting the
languishing theme of a serenade, and in
the Coda of the final
Rondò, in which the three
instruments sing alternatively in the
"napolitanic" scale.
ERNST VON DOHNANYI
(1877-1960), is considered, after Franz
Liszt, the greatest Hungarian
pianist ever. He is also known as
conductor, teacher and coordinator of
important musical organisations. Although
he chronologically belongs to
the 20th century’s composers, his music is
influenced by the romantic
middle-european and the classic formal
traditions, which he adapted to
his intense lyricism. It is particularly
evident that his music,
beginning with his C-Minor-Quintet Op. 1,
is influenced by Johannes
Brahms in the way of handling the
sonata-form Bela Bartók, his
admired fellow-student, commented that
Dohnany was a composer of high
artistic level, however, due to his lack
of interest in the traditional
Hungarian music, not belonging to the
so-called Hungarian national
school. His complete works do not comprise
more than 48 compositions.
The Serenade Op. 10, the only one for
string-trio, was composed in
1902. It represents a fundamental mark in
his musical development,
because in it – for the first time – the
composer demonstrated his
personal style. Apparently showing five
movements, the Serenade
consists of the classical four movements,
which alternate in the
character (slow-fast-slow-fast) according
to the customs of the 18th
century. The march-introduction is
repeated at the end of the last
part, thus forming a meaningful frame for
the whole composition. Of
particular interest is the tripartition of
each of the movements: the
slow movements slow animated insertions,
the fast movements inserts
slow episodes. The second movement,
Romance, is characterized by an
intense lyricism and reveals a
particularly skilful way to display the
melody in the best register for each of
the instruments. After the
brilliant Scherzo we listen to two
manifestations of admiration of the
Viennese classicism: the Tema con
variazioni, in which he develops the
themes with a particular musical skill and
unexpected harmonic
combinations, and the Finale, which shows
the form of a “Rondo”.
Francesco
Bissoli |
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