Trio Barclay: Tchaikovsky and Arroyo
Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 5pm
Performance Sponsor
Mike and Ellie Gordon
Charlie and Ling Zhang
Artist Sponsor
Brian and Yun Kyung Chung
This performance will include a 15-minute intermission.
Dennis Kim: violin
Jonah Kim: cello
Sean Kennard: piano
PROGRAM
Trio Tres (World Premiere)
by Fernando Arroyo Lascurain
I. Moderato - Allegro Moderato
II. Adagio - Poco Piú Mossi - Lento
III. Allegro con moto
-Intermission-
Trio in A Minor for Violin, Cello, and Piano, Op.50
À la mémoire d’un grand artiste
by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
I. Pezzo elegiaco: Moderato assai - Allegro giusto
II. (A) Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto (B) Variazione finale e coda
By Fernando Arroyo Lascurain
- Moderato - Allegro Moderato
- Adagio - Poco Piú Mossi - Lento
- Allegro con moto
The Piano Trio. One of the most iconic chamber ensembles in western music, a vessel for some of the most unique and exciting music conceived by great composers. This well-known configuration of instruments was once a staple of any composer’s catalog yet it has become one of the most daunting prospects for a contemporary composer. How does one compete with the genius entries by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, or Tchaikovsky? Lush melodies, exciting moments, and awe-inspiring beauty fill these masterful works of chamber music. Why would an established ensemble commission a new Trio with so many masterpieces available? Yet this season Trio Barclay made history and commissioned three new works to add to the catalog, and programming each premiere along three gems. With the gravitas of these thoughts that plagued my mind I set out to write. Should this piece reflect the struggles we lived through during the pandemic? Should it be a celebration of music coming back to the stage? Or, in the hands of these virtuosic players, a show piece that wows the audience with acrobatic music? Ultimately what guided my hand was the idea of taking the audience on a journey of what it means to create music and let the work revel it’s meaning.
The journey begins with troubled first moment that reflects the excitement, doubt, conflict, sense of urgency, and eventual resolution faced when confronted by a blank page. The opening chords are not unlike my first attempts at finding the musical language of a piece. Exploring sonorities, melodies, or even rhythm. The internal dialogue that says “is this chord right…? How is this instead?” finally giving way to a somber melody that builds itself into a moment of realization and giving way to an allegro that explores possibilities of what this musical material could do in the context of this piece.
When I began the second movement, I had found my stride, yet resisting the urge to move into the excitement of the final movement I gave myself pause and thought about previous works I completed throughout the years. How did they affect me? What did it feel like writing them? And so the second movement begins with a distant memory, giving way to a nostalgic oddly yet sweet melody that builds to four bell like calls taken from my Clarinet concerto, but the melody of distant memory returns. This movement reveled moments of melancholy, the memories of cold New York winters, and the weight of the last three years set to music.
For the final movement, I wanted to explore the urgency, rush, risk and joy that comes with live performance. Coming back from 18 months without performing live music, I found myself rediscovering the giddy excitement, the struggles, and the intrinsic need of playing with colleagues once again. From recording sessions, to the concert stage, this feeling I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager going on tour for the first time came back. The opening of the movement reflects the rush of adrenaline that builds up in the moments before the first notes of the concert are played. As the music progresses a joyous melody inspired by Mexican folk music is reveled, we hear the twists and turns keeping the players on their toes, and the feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment that comes when playing the final moments of a memorable performance. Writing this movement for Dennis Kim and Trio Barclay feels right since playing the classics and discovering exciting new orchestral music with Pacific Symphony revitalized my love for this craft.
My hope is that this Trio gives you an insight into musical ramblings that go inside this composer’s brain.
by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
I. Pezzo elegiaco: Moderato assai - Allegro giusto
II. (A) Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto (B) Variazione finale e coda
Four Symphonies, Swan Lake, three concertos, Eugene Onegin, and many iconic works were written by Tchaikovsky before he ever wrote a piano Trio. He had written three string quartets, several major piano solo works, an explore almost every genre of music yet he resisted this specific instrumentation. In 1880, Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s patroness, asked him to composer a Piano trio for her resident ensemble, and endeavor Tchaikovsky declined with apparent disdain writing: “The warm, wonderfully sustained sounds of the violin and cello lose all their value in competition with the king of instruments, while the latter tries in vain to sing as only its rivals can sing… There is no tonal blend . . . To my mind, the piano can be effective in only three situations: alone, in a contest with the orchestra, as accompaniment, i.e. the background of a picture.” It has been speculated this reasoning was his way of shunning away work to focus on two operas (one which he abandoned and never completed), or possibly jealousy towards a young Claude Debussy, Mme. von Meck’s house pianist and protege.
Not long after he denied the request, however, Tchaikovsky surprised Mme. von Meck with news that he was working on a piano trio. He informed her his motivation outweighed his disdain for the medium. Nicolai Rubinstein, the legendary Russian musician, had recently died, and Tchaikovsky felt compelled to honor his memory. Wanting to honor Rubinstein by writing for the piano, and his belief that chamber music is most appropriate for the expression of personal loss, he found the piano trio to be answer. In a letter to Mme. von Meck he writes: “I have already written the beginning of a trio. Whether I will finish it, whether it will come out successfully, I do not know, but I would very much wish to bring what I have begun to a successful conclusion.”
Tchaikovsky continued to be face self-doubt regarding his abilities in the medium, perhaps reveling his disdain for piano trios was rooted in fear of failure. Upon completing the work, he shared his concerns once more: “I am afraid, having written all my life for orchestra, and only taken late in life to chamber music, I may have failed to adapt this instrumental combination to my musical thoughts. In short, I fear I may have arranged music of a symphonic character as a trio, instead of writing directly for my instruments.” It is possible Tchaikovsky was right. The Trio lacks the intimacy and subtlety often associated with chamber works, as he often seeks to achieve the massive sonorities heard in his orchestral works with just three instruments. Still, the earnest melancholy, passion, and emotional vulnerability of the work are unlike any other.
Although only two movements, the trio lasts at least 45 minutes, rivaling the scale and length of his last three symphonies. The first movement, Pezzo elegiaco: moderato assai, is an elegy featuring three exquisite melodies which he developers in a loose sonata for of symphonic proportions. After a very brief piano introduction. the opening theme is presented by the cello. As the secondary melody rises from the piano, the violin takes it over before handing it back to the piano. Unlike Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms, Tchaikovsky’s compositional style didn’t focus on the development of melodic material, a staple of sonata form. He relied on repetition, rhythmic variation, harmonic tension, and emotional effects to propel his material forward. The use of these techniques in the context of a piano trio result in a composition that feels heroic in nature and larger than the instrumentation can express.
A substantial second movement is divided into two sections. The first, a Theme and Variations opens with a folk-like melody played by the piano. The emotional weight of the first movement is replaced by a joyful of set of variations. There is a scherzo variation that features the piano accompanied by pizzicatos on the strings, the sound of jingling bells in variation V, and variation VI is a yet another beautiful Tchaikovsky waltz. Followed by a march like variation, a robust fugue with rhythmic intricacy, an a Chopin like mazurka, Tchaikovsky ends the set of variations with an intimate rendition of the theme.
The second part of the movement is an explosive final variation in sonata form, that greatly expands upon the theme. Variazione Finale e Coda: Allegro resoluto e con fuoco. As the tempo marking states, this variation is one filled with fire. The theme constantly presses forward until suddenly, the music changes radically. The serious tone of the opening theme from the first movement is back. It is marked, Andante con moto - Lugubre l’istesso tempo. The mournful pace of the tempo indicates sorrow over-whelms Tchaikovsky’s optimism. This walking pace gives way to the dotted dragging rhythm of a funeral march. The piano and the cello sing out the theme, finally yielding to the violin marked “piangendo” (crying). The Coda is a bare soul depiction of Tchaikovsky’s sorrow, and as sorrow does, the music fades away, mourning ‘À la mémoire d’un grand artiste (In memory of a great artist).’
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