Notes for: August 11, 2015
Born in Hamburg but living most of his life in Leipzig, Carl Reinecke was one of the most versatile musicians in 19th century Germany. In a career that lasted until his retirement in 1902, he was recognized as a conductor, pianist and educator, as well as a composer.
As a conductor, 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.
As an educator, he was a professor for 35 years, first at the Cologne Conservatory, then at Barmen and Breslau, and finally at Leipzig, ending as the director and transforming it into one of Europe’s leading educational institutions. Students came from all over Europe to study with him, and included composers Edvard Grieg, Leoš Janáček, Isaac Albéniz, Max Bruch and Frederick Delius.
As a pianist, he toured Western Europe extensively 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 of 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 lifetime 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, but with a fondness for romantic melody.
This was one of three trios composed in his mature years for unusual combinations of instruments – Opus 188 for oboe, horn and piano; Opus 264 for viola, clarinet and piano, and Opus 274 for clarinet, horn and piano. He produced them to play as pianist with Leipzig colleagues whose instruments were still given limited performance opportunities in the chamber-music repertory. Opus 188 was composed in 1886-87 when Reinecke was 63 years old and still a hands-on teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory. The work is in the composer’s favorite four-movement form, with the scherzo coming second to provide a breather between the heavy first movement and the also important slow movement.
The first movement, allegro moderato, opens with a two-measure introduction by the piano, followed by the horn presenting the march-like first theme in dotted rhythm. This is followed by an unusual transitional passage in contrasting triple rhythm, which is stated by the piano and recurs from time to time later in the movement. The second theme itself is another horn solo. The long development gives both of the wind instruments a chance to shine.
The Scherzo is brief and light in the customary form with a main subject followed by a contrasting trio. The ensuing adagio is touching and poetic. The haunting theme is presented at the outset, first by the piano, then by the oboe, and then, at some length, by the horn. The horn launches a short interlude in the same mood, and the main melody returns with the two wind instruments as equals.
The trio concludes with a rondo, allegro ma non troppo, with the recurring refrain stated by the piano and continued by the two winds. In the intervening episodes the wind instruments compete for attention and revive the contrasting triple-rhythm material from the first movement.