Notes for: July 15, 2014
Born in Hamburg but living most of his life in Leipzig, Carl Reinecke was one of the most versatile musicians in 19th century Germany, recognized as a conductor, pianist and teacher as well as a composer.
In 1860, he was appointed director of Leipzig’s great Gewandhaus orchestra, a position he held for more than 30 years. There he led the premier performance of Brahms’s German Requiem and joined the Gewandhaus Quartet in the premier performance of Brahms’s great Piano Quintet.
He served as a teacher for 35 years, first as a professor at the Cologne Conservatory and then at the Leipzig Conservatory. Students came from all over Europe to study with him, and included composers Edvard Grieg, Leos Janacek, Isaac Albeniz, Max Bruch and Frederick Delius.
As a pianist, he toured Western Europe as a concert artist, probably unrivaled as a performer of Mozart. Known for his legato style in a time of keyboard barnstorming, Liszt picked him as the teacher for his own two daughters. Near the end of his life, at the age of 80, he recorded piano rolls, making him the earliest-born pianist to have his playing preserved in any format.
As a composer, he first wrote music for his own performance – four piano concertos and cadenzas for concertos by other composers. After his retirement from teaching, he devoted his time to composing, resulting in a life-time output of nearly 300 published works. At a time of great changes in music, he was basically a conservative, producing music of classical design, proportion and restraint.
This trio was one of three, composed in his mature years, for unusual combinations of instruments – Op. 188 for oboe, horn and piano; Op. 264 for viola, clarinet and piano, and Op. 274 for clarinet, horn and piano. He produced them to perform with Leipzig friends who played instruments then with limited roles in the chamber-music repertory.
The Op. 274 trio, which we hear tonight, was composed in 1905, five years before Reinecke’s death, and is the work of a superior craftsman writing in the harmonic language and spirit of the late Romantic period just coming to an end.
Indeed, the first movement, allegro, is in conventional sonata form and could well have been written by Brahms. It begins with a six-measure horn call repeated by the clarinet. The call then is expanded into the flowing first theme. A second, more lyrical theme, is presented as a duet by the two wind instruments. In the development, these elements are blended with a third theme led by the piano and culminating in a long crescendo to a climax.
The second measure is titled Ein Märchen (a German fairytale) – a caption used previously by Schumann for music depicting a somewhat sinister world of fairies. There is touch of that element here in an otherwise restful mood picture.
In the third movement, a scherzo, Reinecke again follows Schumann’s lead in providing two contrasting trios. Note the vigor and bravura writing for the horn.
The finale, allegro, is launched with the clarinet’s statement of the main theme. This is followed by a series of sections giving all three instruments a chance to shine, and ending with a formal announcement of the starting theme.