Notes for: August 7, 2007
Max Bruch is known today mainly for his First Violin Concerto, one of the great works for solo violin and orchestra; The Scottish Fantasy, also for solo violin and orchestra, and Kol Nidre, a treatment for cello and piano of the traditional Jewish Yom Kippur prayer. During his lifetime, however, he was an internationally recognized composer whose output included three operas, three symphonies, two other violin concertos, a piano trio, two string quartets and, most played of all, a series of secular and sacred choral works.
Late in his career, Bruch wrote two works for his son Max Felix, a theory teacher at the Hamburg Conservatory and a skillful clarinetist – Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83, and the Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra, Op. 88. He liked the mellow quality of the alto register, so in each work he combined the clarinet with the viola. The concerto is all but unknown, but the Eight Pieces are now having a revival – the Schwann catalog lists nine current recordings.
In these pieces, Bruch followed Mozart’s lead in his Trio, K. 498, in combining the clarinet with the viola. To enhance the work’s commercial appeal, however, he published alternative versions for violin, viola and piano and for clarinet, cello and piano. All three versions are encountered today, and the last is the version we hear this evening.
The Eight Pieces represented a return to chamber music for Bruch, who had composed no chamber works during the preceding 42 years. However, the pieces are not “trios” in the usual sense of three instruments of equal importance. The clarinet and the cello share the spotlight, with the figurations calculated to serve the requirements and tonal characteristics of each instrument. The piano, in contrast, performs largely in accompaniment, sometimes assuming orchestral characteristics like tremolo.
Further, the pieces are all “character pieces,” a 19th century Romantic term to denote music intended to portray a particular mood rather than to fit the more elaborate sonata or variation forms inherited from Haydn and Mozart. All but one are in a minor key.
Bruch thought of the Eight Pieces as separate, self-contained units – in fact, he advised against playing all eight in one concert program. This evening we hear the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh pieces.
No. 1, in A minor, andante, opens the series quietly. The piano begins with a short introduction establishing a four-note pattern – DUM-DUM-ta-DUM. The cello then presents the melody incorporating this pattern, the clarinet picks up the strain, and the three instruments combine. There is a brief, more liquid contrasting melody, and toward the end the two melodies merge.
No. 3, in C sharp minor, andante con moto. The cello and clarinet again take contrasting turns. The cello opens with a rhapsodic, folk-like, melody, and the clarinet follows with a more lyrical one. The cello returns with the opening section, but when the clarinet returns, the cello joins in with appropriate ornamentation.
No. 4, in D minor, is marked allegro agitato, but its mood is more frisky, even humorous, than agitated. The clarinet launches the brisk opening section over rapid piano runs, and the cello joins in. With the piano runs continuing, the contrasting middle section is more lyrical, but the opening section returns for an almost gymnastic ending.
No. 5, in F minor, andante, is entitled “Rumanian Melody” and is based on an authentic Rumanian folksong. The cello sings the melancholy song over a piano accompaniment resembling a hammered folk instrument like the dulcimer or cimbalom, and the strain is picked up by the clarinet. The piece is another example of Bruch’s frequent use of folk music – in other works, he used Scottish, Celtic, Swedish, Russian and Hebrew elements.
No. 7, in B major, allegro vivace ma non troppo, has a Mendelssohn-like charm and vitality.
The piano sets off with a galloping rhythm, the other instruments quickly join in, and, with a few moments of respite, the pace continues to the end.