Ensemble-in-Residence
Trio Barclay: Bach & Rach
Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 5pm
Performance Sponsors
Goran and Susan Matijasevic
Bob Romney
Al Spector and Tatjana Soli
Charlie and Ling Zhang
Artist Sponsors
Judy and Wes Whitmore
This performance will include a 15-minute intermission.
Dennis Kim: violin
Jonah Kim: cello
Sean Kennard: piano
J.S. Bach: Allegro for Trio (from Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052)
Sean Kennard, piano
Dennis Kim, violin
Jonah Kim, cello
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
Dennis Kim, violin
Sean Kennard, piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Allegro mosso (from Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor, Op. 19)
Jonah Kim, cello
Sean Kennard, piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque, No. 1 in G Minor
Sean Kennard, piano
Dennis Kim, violin
Jonah Kim, cello
-intermission-
Sheridan Seyfried: Piano Trio No. 2 (2023)
Sean Kennard, piano
Dennis Kim, violin
Jonah Kim, cello
By: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto is a dark-hued, intense work that is among the composer’s finest. In some ways, it is a typical Baroque concerto: the soloist (the harpsichordist, or pianist) dominates much of the time, and the orchestra (stringed instruments) accompany, sometimes playing a featured role during brief ritornello sections (such as right at the onset of the piece), where they tend to play the melody in unison with each other and with the soloist.
The concept of arranging this piece for piano trio is interesting, since the idea of a featured keyboard soloist accompanied by string instruments bears a certain relationship to the origins of the genre itself. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was considered the father of the piano trio, since he was the first to write a large body of works for violin, cello, and piano (harpsichord in earlier days). However, it would often be more proper to call Haydn’s pieces keyboard solos with accompanying violin and cello—parts which could sometimes even be left out if needed. This approach is a far cry from the near equality of instruments the piano trio format was to eventually achieve.
Much as Bach did in his keyboard concerti, Haydn used the cello simply to reinforce the bass line (the lowest notes) and used the violin to reinforce the melody (the highest notes), both of which were also being played simultaneously on the keyboard. As the quality of cello playing improved over the years, cellists were better able to play melodies using the higher range of their instrument, rather than restricting themselves to just bass lines. And as keyboard instruments evolved from the dry harpsichord into the resonant modern grand piano, the idea of having the piano constantly play the melody in unison with the violin became intrusive, as it tended to overwhelm the violin’s sound. These factors allowed composers, in a line from Mozart through Beethoven and onward, to evolve the piano trio into something closer to an ensemble of equals.
And so, it is through this very different lens that we will be hearing Bach’s concerto on this program: the violin and cello enjoy greater autonomy, and the piano finds different ways to play a supporting role. It’s still the featured instrument, but a greater balance is achieved.
Program Notes by Sheridan Seyfried
By: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Trio Barclay is performing the music of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff in honor of the 150th anniversary of his birth.
The Vocalise is the first of three Rachmaninoff works on today’s program; interestingly, they’ll be performed in reverse chronological order. This work, from 1915, is one of the last pieces the composer wrote in his native Russia before leaving for America in 1918 amidst political turmoil. Rachmaninoff apparently lost his desire to compose once separated from his motherland, and so the last twenty-five years of his life, spent mostly performing, and based in America, produced only a handful of pieces. The Vocalise is a wordless melody originally composed for a singer—an unusual sort of composition in classical music. Because the melody was designed to stand on its own (without lyrics), it is particularly well-suited to performance by instruments. And so, over time, the piece has been performed by almost every classical instrument. Violinists especially have gravitated toward this five-minute work, and it has become a popular encore piece at recitals. It features Rachmaninoff’s characteristic mixture of long, flowing melody and poignant harmonies.
Program Notes by Sheridan Seyfried
By: Sergei Rachmaninoff
This sonata, written in 1901 when the composer was only twenty-eight, surprisingly ended up being Rachmaninoff’s last piece of chamber music (he continued to compose for orchestra, choir, piano, and solo voice). Rachmaninoff was himself a virtuoso pianist: his incredibly rich and ornate style of composing for the piano bears this out. Even in a work which was to feature the cello, it seems as if the piano cannot ever be only accompaniment—it is an integral and equal partner. (In the 175 years since Bach, the assumption had become reversed: a cello would have been expected to be the featured instrument in a duo with piano!).
The Allegro mosso is the finale of this four-movement work. It exemplifies the triumphant exuberance which was one side of Rachmaninoff’s emotional extremes (the other side being deep melancholy). In juxtaposing a high-spirited tarantella-like dance alongside a tender, flowing melody (the second theme of the movement), the composer anticipated the finale of his own second symphony, which was to come six years later. A work which bears even greater kinship, however, since it was composed simultaneously, is the famous 2nd piano concerto. It’s even possible that the musical ideas Rachmaninoff established in the cello sonata formed a foundation that he could then expand orchestrally in the concerto. And so, coming on the heels of several depressing and unproductive years, this sonata ultimately served as the launchpad for the composer’s second great creative period, which lasted until 1916.
Program Notes by Sheridan Seyfried
By: Sergei Rachmaninoff
There is some confusion surrounding Rachmaninoff’s piano trios, since he wrote two in close proximity, both titled “élégiaque” and, in their own ways, bear a relationship to Rachmaninoff’s mentor, the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). The work on today’s program, the 15-minute Trio élégiaque No. 1, was premiered in January of 1892, while Rachmaninoff was in his final year of study at the Moscow Conservatory. At the time, Tchaikovsky was a professor of music theory there, and had taken Rachmaninoff under his wing, believing strongly in his talent. The younger composer was much nurtured by this relationship.
Tchaikovsky’s relatively sudden (and, to this day, somewhat mysterious) death in late 1893 affected Rachmaninoff deeply: he poured his heart out into the nearly hour-long Trio élégiaque No. 2 (not on today’s program). But in 1891 and 1892, there was no reason to suspect Tchaikovsky’s imminent death, and so the first trio, despite having the character of an elegy, is not a memorial to his mentor. Musically, however, the work is a powerful reflection of Tchaikovsky’s influence (particularly that of his Piano Trio in A minor), if not an open tribute.
Rachmaninoff’s primary theme, which listeners can clearly follow throughout the whole work, is a four-note rising motif which is the retrograde (backward iteration) of the four-note motif found at the beginning of Tchaikovsky’s famous first piano concerto. Rachmaninoff’s featured treatment of the piano is again apparent: the work opens with the piano playing melody while the strings accompany for a full two minutes. (Nevertheless, Rachmaninoff is still able to ultimately treat the instruments as equals throughout the course of the work, in keeping with the modern understanding of the piano trio.)
The Trio élégiaque No. 1, despite its rhapsodic qualities, bears some resemblance to typical classical sonata procedure: an opening section introduces several ideas, a middle section develops, or varies, them, and a third section “recapitulates” or repeats the opening section, but with some modifications. The piece then closes with a brief additional section (a “coda”) in which the main theme is intoned over a rumbling, low piano part meant to suggest a funeral march.
Program Notes by Sheridan Seyfried
by: Sheridan Seyfried (b. 1984)
A full program note is not yet available for this piece, as the piece itself is currently being written. Such is the excitement associated with world premieres! The composer (who has written the other notes and is writing now) will make remarks about the piece from the stage to introduce it. To use the first person, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to again compose for my good friends and colleagues Dennis, Jonah, and Sean. Some of you may remember the earlier trio I wrote for them, which was heard for the first time in its entirety last September in this same hall. In writing a new work, I was nervous that I may have run out of ideas for violin, cello, and piano, but I realized quickly (and fortunately) that this was not the case. At this juncture, the work looks to contain music of liveliness and intensity, music of a more inward, heartfelt quality, and music of exuberant joy. And it is certainly a piece in which the instruments are treated as equals! I’m eager to share this new work with all of you.
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