piano quartette in c minor ‧ sonata in d ‧ divertimento
TRANSCRIPT
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BRAHMS During the year 1856, the centenary of Mozart’s birth, the 23-year-old Brahms was
active in a series of public concerts celebrat- ing this anniversary. After performing in various German cities both as a soloist and as
pianist in chamber music ensembles, Brahms returned to Dusseldorf in April, at which time
he showed the violinist Joachim the manu- script of a piano quartet in C-sharp minor. In
a letter written later that month, Joachim
discusses this new Brahms work and quotes one of its themes, and from this circumstance
we are able to identify the work as being in
fact an early version of the Piano Quartette
in C Minor, published by Brahms 19 years later as Op. 60.
The extraordinary stylistic variety of the
four movements of the work (as well as con- flicting statements by various commentators)
makes it difficult to ascribe dates of composi-
tion with complete certainty. Kalbeck cites a Brahms memorandum that places the com-
pletion of the third and fourth movements in the years 1873-74. Another scurce suggests
that part of the work was “completed” in Switzerland during the Christmas season of
1862. What seems evident is that Brahms, who
liked to tackle big works in pairs, kept the C Minor Piano Quartette at hand during almost two decades for periodic bouts of revision.
We thus find it sharing his attention from time to time with other major projects, among them the German Requiem. Not the least in-
teresting thing about this quartet—particularly
since Brahms was certainly as well aware as
his critics of its peculiar stylistic contrasts—is the composer’s dogged insistence on perfect-
ing it. Not surprisingly, the work as finally
published won popular affection much more
slowly than Brahms’ two other—and more
homogeneous—piano quartets. But it has al- ways been an absorbing experience to pre- cisely those listeners whose interest is deeply
engaged by problematic concepts—among whom, on the evidence, we might place Brahms himself.
Judged solely on stylistic grounds, the
second movement (Scherzo) would seem to be the earliest. It is reminiscent of the first piano sonata in its confident address and
youthful energy. Yet the energy here is more concentrated, more contained, and we defin-
itely sense the shaping hand of the mature Brahms working on youthful material.
The first movement (Allegro) and the third (Andante) suggest the deep seriousness and
controlled muscularity familiar in middle-
period Brahms. The somber and portentous character of the first movement has reminded
some critics of the Schubert C minor piano
sonata—particularly since the melody of the second subject is followed, as in the Schubert
work, by a series of variations on itself. The Andante contains one of those immaculately
long-lined melodies of which Brahms had an apparently infallible command at any and
every date but which are most often associ-
ated with his later piano pieces. The finale is
unquestionably later Brahms, and to those who prefer this composer as a young Roman- tic, the movement has sometimes seemed
lacking in spontaneity. To others, its terseness of statement and spareness of texture repre-
sent a reward, not a penalty, of sobering in- hibition. From this point of view Brahms’ two decades of revision are justified. If he has
produced richer chamber works than the C Minor Piano Quartette, he has produced none
more transparent in musical intention or more gratefully accessible to the hearer.
BOCCHERINI Since Luigi Boccherini lived until the year 1805, he is perhaps not yet ancient enough to
be given the kind of wholesale revival enjoyed nowadays by earlier and, in many cases, less
important composers. Today, at any rate, he is something of an anomaly: an admittedly
great composer (and an incredibly prolific
one), the larger part of whose work is still unfamiliar to the wide public. He is credited
with upward of 460 works—including, among
other things, 20 symphonies, 21 sonatas for violin and piano and either 91 or 102 string
quartets, depending on your source. Boc- cherini was roughly contemporary with
Haydn, and although there is no record of the two composers having met, they are known to have admired each other and to have ex-
changed salutations through the Austrian
publisher Artaria. Their contemporaries
found their styles so neatly complementary
that the violinist Giuseppe Puppo put the no-
tion in a celebrated witticism: ‘“‘Boccherini is
Haydn’s wife.” As the present Sonata in D
indicates, however, Boccherini was much
more than the “graceful” composer his popu-
lar piano minuet would suggest. The Sonata is
a work of originality, warmth and integrity,
with a glowing surface from a kind of inner
illumination. It would be difficult to find a
chamber work that revealed to greater advan-
tage the cantilena style of both the instru- ments involved.
1OCH It might be difficult, also, to find a true cham- ber work that is further removed in mood
from the Boccherini Sonata than the late Ernst Toch’s second Divertimento (a work written originally for violin and viola). Yet
the Toch piece is as authentic, as idiomatically
“chamber,” as the Boccherini. There is no
denying that Toch’s musical curiosity kept pace with the adventurousness of his era: in
addition to operas and a quantity of brilliant and extremely difficult piano music, he wrote radio music, film music and even a suite in “spoken music” consisting of words explored in their rhythmic and dynamic aspect only. But Toch’s first and lifelong interest was chamber music; his own earliest experiments in the idiom are thought to have derived about equally from Mozart and Brahms. The
present Divertimento is characteristic of his later style. It reveals an extremely spirited and
Rothschild
energetic mind, one in which a highly devel-
oped interest in formal organization (and a
discernible taste for lean textures and eco-
nomical gesture) does not forbid pointed ref- erence to the Romantic tradition.
The present version of the Divertimento, in addition to replacing the viola with the cello,
reverses the playing sequence of the move-
ments as written. —ROBERT OFFERGELD
SANFORD SCHONBACH, violist in this recording, died December 19, 1967. This
is his only recorded collaboration with
Heifetz and Piatigorsky, who were his
friends and colleagues for many years.
Born December 29, 1917, Mr. Schonbach
had been principal violist of the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra since
1946, appearing as soloist with the orches-
tra as well as performing with major chamber music groups throughout the
United States. As a fellow professor at the
University of Southern California he ap-
peared with Heifetz and Piatigorsky in
concerts of chamber music and performed
with them in the intimacy of their homes
among friends.
As friend, colleague and musical col-
laborator — Heifetz and Piatigorsky con-
tinue to pay him the highest respect and
hold the memory of his friendship and talents in the highest esteem.
SANFORD SCHONBACH
Mono LM-3009
Stereo LSC-3009
THE HEIFETZ-PIATIGORSKY
CONCERTS Brahms — PIANO QUARTETTE
IN C MINOR, Op. 60
Jacob Lateiner, Pianist
Jascha Heifetz, Violinist
Sanford Schonbach, Violist
Gregor Piatigorsky, Cellist
Boccherini— SONATA IN D
Toch— DIVERTIMENTO,
Op. 37, No. 2
Jascha Heifetz, Violinist
Gregor Piatigorsky, Cellist
Produced by John F. Pfeiffer
Recording Engineers: Ivan Fisher and John Norman
JACOB LATEINER
Other recordings in The Heifetz—Piatigorsky Concerts series: Dvorak Piano Quintette in A, Op. 81 (with Jacob Lateiner, Israel Baker, Joseph de Pasquale) * Francaix Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello (with dosepn de Pasquale) 2545 os ee pero ess LM/LSC-2985
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5, K.219 * Turina Trio No. 1 for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 35 (with Leonard Pennario) ........... LM/LSC-2957
DYNAGROOVE © 1968, RCA, New York, N.Y. © Printed in U.S.A. “
Library of Congress Card Numbers R68-2633-35 (Mono) and R68-2636-38 (Stereo) apply to this recording.
Timings: Side 1—8:51, 3:47, 8:02, 8:55 (P.D.)
Side 2—8:36, 7:03 (BMI)