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MENDELSSOHN: PIANO TRIO INC MINOR, OP. 66

A youngMendelssohn wrote to his sister in 1832that he planned to “write a few good trios”over the course of his career. This proved theunderstatement of the century: Mendelssohn’stwo eventual contributions to the genrehave become part of the core trio repertoire,vaunted for their lyricism, technical brilliance,and ambitious large-scale forms. In a review from1839, Robert Schumann praised Mendelssohn’sD minor Trio, Op. 49, as the “master-trio of ourtime” and anointed Mendelssohn the “Mozart ofthe 19th century.” An endorsement fromSchumann could have lasting implications (see:Brahms, Johannes) and it is maybe a relic ofSchumann’s proclamation about the D minorTrio that even today the piece gets slightly moreplay than the later C minor Trio. But as fleet andexquisitely proportional as Mendelssohn’s firsttrio may be, its successor (composed in 1845) isdeeper, darker, higher-stakes—the Beethoven tothe D minor’s Mozart, as it were.

The first movement of Op. 66 seems cast in aparticularly Beethovenian C minor “mode,” withan economical but propulsive opening motiveand an atmosphere of taut, sustained intensity

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019 | 8PMSegerstrom Center for the Arts | Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

Pre-concert lecture by Brian Lauritzen, 7pm

JOSHUA BELL, VIOLINSTEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLOJEREMY DENK, PIANO

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Piano Trio in C minor, Felix MENDELSSOHNOp. 66 (1809-1847)

Allegro energico e con fuocoAndante espressivoScherzo: Molto allegro quasi prestoFinale: Allegro appassionato

Piano Trio No. 2 Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICHin E minor, Op. 67 (1906-1975)

AndanteAllegro con brioLargoAllegretto

- INTERMISSION -

Trio Elegiaque No. 1 Sergei RACHMANINOFFin G minor (1873-1943)

Piano Trio in A Minor Maurice RAVEL(1873-1943)

ModéréPantoum (Assez vif)Passacaille (Très large)Final (Animé)

Joshua Bell appears by arrangement withPark Avenue Artists | www.parkavenueartists.com

and Primo Artists | www.primoartists.com

Steven Isserlis appears by arrangement with Colbert Artists | https://colbertartists.com

Jeremy Denk appears by arrangement with Opus 3 Artists | www.opus3artists.com

(SHERVIN LAINEZ)

PART OF THE

WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROMTHE SEGERSTROM FOUNDATION

LAGUNA CHAMBER MUSIC SERIESSPONSORED BY

SAM AND LYNDIE ERSANSPONSORED BYELIZABETH SEGERSTROM

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that does not subside until the arrival of thebroad and songful second theme. Inthe movement’s recapitulation, Mendelssohnreveals that his lean and concise opening themewas hiding contrapuntal possibilities—this timearound, the piano and violin play the motivein close canon. An extended coda ups the anteeven further, with the strings playing anaugmentation of the theme (twice as slow)while the piano tears through at the originalspeed. All of this counterpoint might seemterribly academic were not used to such thrillingeffect.

The fury of the first movement recedes, givingway to an inward-looking Andante that openswith a piano soliloquy—first a statement, thena question, then an entreaty, the phrase neverinflected the same way twice. The strings join,rescuing the piano from loneliness. A centralsection introduces more motion and urgency;to close, Mendelssohn brings back the melody ofthe beginning but exalts it, the violin andcello soaring in their high registers, thepiano embroidering. The third movement,a quicksilver scherzo, is straight out ofA Midsummer Night’s Dream (nobody coulddo fairy-music quite like Mendelssohn).

In the finale, Mendelssohn the Bach-revivalistcomes out in full force: a darkly sweeping episodesegues into a four-voiced Lutheran chorale. Theexact identity of the chorale is still debated—infact Mendelssohn may not have been quotingan older source verbatim so much as invokingthe unmistakable sense of “chorale,” turninghis audience into congregation members via atune that they almost recognize. The movement’sapotheosis places the chorale melody, now inC major, over massive organ pedals. Theharrowing specter of C minor has been roundly,soundly defeated—another classic Beethovenmove, but here infused with a distinctlyMendelssohnian quality of joyous Protestantredemption.

SHOSTAKOVICH: PIANO TRIO NO. 2IN E MINOR, OP. 67

Shostakovich’s artistic identity hinges oncontradictions. On the one hand we know him asan unsentimental neoclassicist—brusque, ludic,and almost mechanical in his rigorous exactitude;on the other hand we also sense in Shostakovicha nearly unbearable hyper-empathy, a moralseriousness and a profound humanitarianattunement to suffering. This dialectic (holds thescalpel/feels the wound) is at the core of theE minor Piano Trio.

Composed in 1944, the Op. 67 trio is elegiacon both a personal and a universal level.Shostakovich dedicated the piece to thememory of his close friend Ivan Sollertinsky.Director of the Leningrad Philharmonic anda formidable scholar, Sollertinsky introducedShostakovich to the music of Mahler, andstood by Shostakovich through the FirstDenunciation (a vicious Stalinist artistic smearcampaign). In 1943 Sollertinsky was evacuated toSiberia during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, anddied some months later of causes unknown. Hewas only 42. Shostakovich’s Op. 67 trio mournshis dear colleague but also widens the lensbeyond private grief, responding to the socialcollapse and mass casualties of World War II.

The trio opens with a spectral solo lamentationfrom the cello, in high harmonics; the violinenters with a countermelody in its mostalto register. This role reversal of the strings(ghost-cello in the stratosphere, violin asbass-line) creates an extraordinary timbral effect,to which the piano adds low, dolorous octaves.The strings then take up an insistent knocking,transforming the movement’s tone from desolateto pointillistic and fragmentary. Motives passrapidly, often in close counterpoint, amongthe three players. These theme-bits are in turnfolksy, jovial, jarring, but Shostakovich with-holds any true coalescence of these elements,constantly pulling the rug out.

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heroes, his style is in no way derivative. In fact, itis astonishing how fully-formed Rachmaninoff’scompositional voice already was in this work of“juvenilia.” The languid lines that last forever, theroiling-boiling pianism, the martial gestures thatmanage to convey a certain stoic nobility ratherthan bombast—all are present and accounted for.

Tchaikovsky died toward the end of 1893,prompting Rachmaninoff to compose a secondtrio in his memory. The elegiac circle was nowcomplete.

RAVEL: PIANO TRIO IN A MINOR

After planning to write a piano trio for anumber of years, Ravel finally put pen(cil) to(staff) paper in the shadow of war, rushing tocomplete the work in 1914 before reporting forduty as an ambulance driver. He claimed thathe had planned the trio in its entirety “except forthe themes”—a wry and winking statement, sincethematic development was at thispoint considered essential to chambermusic discourse. But Ravel’s aesthetic oftenprivileged form and harmony over melody,exploring kaleidoscopic sonorities andintricate proportional relationships in favor ofdeveloping motives at great length. One canalmost see him scattering a handful ofpretty tunes at the last minute on top ofa meticulously-realized formal plan. Butwhatever his true compositional process, thenuanced and superbly crafted final product(which Ravel dedicated to his discerningcounterpoint teacher André Gedalge) betrays nocut corners.

Ravel was especially renowned for the subtlety ofhis orchestrations, and true to form his trio writ-ing shows unusual sensitivity to theindividual timbres, acoustics, and ranges of therespective instruments; many other composers ofpiano trios have fallen into the trap oftreating the three components as abstract andequal contrapuntal lines, in the process ignoring

A scherzo of relentless savage irony (à laMahler) follows, from which a few moments oftrue rollicking joy arise. The slow movement, aheavy passacaglia, returns us to anguish.And then again comes the ominous knockingthat was telegraphed in the first movement.A distinctly “Jewish” theme emerges inpizzicato, then swells into a hair-raising march.Shostakovich, though himself not a Jew, wasdeeply sympathetic to displaced, persecuted,and alienated populations; his incorporation ofklezmer motifs into several of his compositions,as well as his long-standing friendships withprominent Jews (among them David Oistrakhand Mstislav Rostropovich), were consciousacts of resistance. In finale of Op. 67,Shostakovich’s death-march treatment of theJewish theme represents the terror of pogromsand state-sanctioned genocide. In wake of thisfrenzied massacre the elegy and passacagliathemes from the earlier movements resurface,gutted, to conclude the trio.

RACHMANINOFF: TRIO ELEGIAQUENO. 1 IN G MINOR

Shostakovich’s trio was not literally “elegiac” inname, but mourned the passing of a specificindividual. Rachmaninoff’s first piano trio, bycontrast, bears the modifier “elégiaque” in itstitle but does not (as far as we know) respondto a literal death—rather it refracts anotherfamous elegy-trio, Tchaikovsky’s A minor(which was dedicated to pianist-conductorNikolai Rubinstein).

Rachmaninoff composed the first TrioElégiaque in early 1892 during his final year atthe Moscow Conservatory, at the age ofnineteen; the piece is cast in a single expansiveand episodic movement. Rachmaninoff’sreverence for Tchaikovsky is clear from the firstbars: the piano’s opening plaint shares strandsof melodic DNA with the principal theme ofthe A minor trio. But though Rachmaninoff’strio pays clear homage to one of his artistic

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the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, whoformed the orchestra in 1958. Bell’s interestsrange from the repertoire’s hallmarks tocommissioned works, including Nicholas Maw’sViolin Concerto, for which Bell received aGrammy® award. He has also premiered works ofJohn Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Jay Greenberg,and Behzad Ranjbaran.

Committed to expanding classical music’s socialand cultural impact, Bell has collaborated withpeers including Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis,Chris Botti, Anoushka Shankar, FrankieMoreno, Josh Groban, and Sting. In Spring2019, Bell joins his longtime friends, cellistSteven Isserlis and pianist Jeremy Denk, for aten-city American trio tour.

Bell maintains an avid interest in film music,commemorating the 20th anniversary of TheRed Violin (1998) in 2018-19. The film’sAcademy-Award winning soundtrack featuresBell as soloist; in 2018, Bell brings the film withlive orchestra to various summer festivals and theNew York Philharmonic. In addition to sixLive From Lincoln Center specials, Bell is alsofeatured on a PBS Great Performances episode,“Joshua Bell: West Side Story in Central Park.”

Through music and technology, Bell furtherseeks to expand the boundaries of his instrument.He has partnered with Embertone on the JoshuaBell Virtual Violin, a sampler created forproducers, engineers, and composers. Bell alsocollaborated with Sony on the Joshua Bell VRexperience.

An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell hasrecorded over 40 albums garnering Grammy®,Mercury®, Gramophone and ECHO Klassikawards. Sony Classical’s June 2018 release, withBell and the Academy, features Bruch’s ScottishFantasy and G minor Violin Concerto.

In 2007, a Pulitzer Prize-winning WashingtonPost story, on Bell performing incognito in aWashington, D.C. metro station, sparked a

coloristic possibilities and causing balance issuesbetween players. Ravel’s approach highlights theidiomatic strengths of each instrument.We also sense that the guitar is never far from hissonic imagination.

The trio’s first movement, which Ravel cast in alaconic “Basque” mode, with wistful folkfragments emerging from fully saturatedharmonies. The second movement, subtitled“Pantoum,” is scherzando and puckish.“Pantoum” (pantum) refers to a type ofMalaysianverse that was popularized in France by VictorHugo and Charles Baudelaire; Ravel likelymodeled his patterns of musical repetition on thepantum’s unique rhyme scheme. The slowmovement (and the trio’s spiritual center) takesthe form of a passacaglia, a Renaissance dance inwhich a bass-line is repeated and subjected to aseries of variations. Here, Ravel features thedifferent combinatorialities of duet within thetrio (piano/cello, piano/violin, cello/violin),building to an electrifying moment ofconvergence where all three instruments finally-play together. The movement also enacts aharmonic journey from archaic sonorities todissonances at the cutting edge of modernity, andback again. The austerity of the passacaglia givesway to a shimmering, aerial finale replete withtrills, tremolos, and rapid-fire dialogue betweenthe instruments; Ravel’s flexible and perpetuallyshifting time signatures keep us on the edges ofour seats until the ecstatic conclusion.

—Alana Murphy

JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN

With a career spanningover thirty years as asoloist, chamber musician,recording artist, conductorand director, Joshua Bell isone of the most celebratedviolinists of his era. Since2011, Bell has served asMusic Director of theAcademy of St Martin in(LISA MARIE MAZZUCCO)

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conversation regarding artistic reception andcontext. It inspired Kathy Stinson’s 2013children’s book, The Man With The Violin, anda newly-commissioned animated film. Belldebuted the 2017 Man With The Violin festivalat the Kennedy Center, and, in March 2019,presents a Man With The Violin festival andfamily concert with the Seattle Symphony.

Bell advocates for music as an essentialeducational tool. He maintains activeinvolvement with Education ThroughMusic andTurnaround Arts, which provide instrumentsand arts education to children who may nototherwise experience classical music firsthand.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began theviolin at age four, and at age twelve, began studieswith Josef Gingold. At age 14, Bell debuted withRiccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra,and debuted at Carnegie Hall at age 17 with theSt. Louis Symphony. Bell received the 2007Avery Fisher Prize and has recently been namedMusical America’s 2010 “Instrumentalist of theYear” and an “Indiana Living Legend.” Hereceived the 2003 Indiana Governor's ArtsAward and a 1991 Distinguished Alumni ServiceAward from his alma mater, the Jacobs School ofMusic.

Bell performs on the 1713 HubermanStradivarius violin, with a François Tourte 18th-century bow.

STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO

Acclaimed worldwide forhis profound musicianshipand technical mastery,British cellist StevenIsserlis enjoys a uniquelyvaried career as a soloist,chamber musician,educator, author andbroadcaster. He appearswith the world’s leading

orchestras and conductors, includingthe Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, BerlinPhilharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic,London Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle andLos Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; and givesrecitals every season in major musical centres.As a chamber musician, he has curatedconcert series for many prestigious venues,including the Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92ndSt Y and the Salzburg Festival. Unusually, healso directs chamber orchestras from the celloin classical programmes.

He has a strong interest in historicalperformance, working with many period-instrument orchestras and giving recitals withharpsichord and fortepiano. He is also a keenexponent of contemporary music and haspremiered many new works, including JohnTavener’s The Protecting Veil, Thomas Adès’sLieux retrouvés, and Gyorgy Kurtag’s ‘For Steven’.

Steven’s award-winning discography includesBach’s Cello Suites for Hyperion (Gramophone’sInstrumental Album of the Year); Beethoven’scomplete works for cello and piano with RobertLevin; and the Elgar and Walton concertoswith the Philharmonia Orchestra/Paavo Jarvi.His recent recordings include the BrahmsDouble Concerto with Joshua Bell andthe Academy of St Martin in the Fields,and—as director and soloist—concertos byHaydn and CPE Bach, with the DeutscheKammerphilharmonie Bremen, which wasshortlisted for a Grammy Award. A special FirstWorld War-inspired disc with Connie Shih wasalso released in 2017,including pieces performedon a travel cello which was played in thetrenches. His latest disc, Shostakovich &Kabalevsky Cello Sonatas with pianist OlliMustonen entered the UK classical album chartat #1.

Since 1997, Steven Isserlis has been ArtisticDirector of the International Musicians Seminarat Prussia Cove, Cornwall. He also enjoys playingfor children, and has created three musical(SATOSHI AOYAGI)

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stories, with the composer Anne Dudley. Histwo books for children, published by Faber's,have been translated into many languages; andhis latest book, a commentary on Schumann’sfamous Advice for Young Musicians, has recent-ly been published, also by Faber’s.

The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’shonours include a CBE in recognition of hisservices to music, the Schumann Prize of theCity of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in theUSA. In 2017, he was awarded the GlashütteOriginal Music Festival Award, the WigmoreHall Gold Medal, and the Walter WillsonCobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music.

He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis deCorberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindlyloaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

JEREMY DENK,PIANO

Jeremy Denk is oneof America's foremostpianists. Winner of aMacArthur 'Genius'Fellowship and the AveryFisher Prize, Mr. Denkwas elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, returnsfrequently to Carnegie Hall, and in recentseasons has performed with the ChicagoSymphony, New York Philharmonic, LosAngeles Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra,as well as on tour with Academy of St Martinin the Fields, and at the Royal Albert Hall aspart of the BBC Proms.

Abroad, recent appearances include London'sWigmoreHall and the BBC Proms, and multipleperformances presented by the Barbican. He alsohas recent and upcoming debuts with theCity of Birmingham Symphony, the LondonPhilharmonic, and the Royal LiverpoolPhilharmonic. In recital, Mr. Denk also recently

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made debuts at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw,the Philharmonie in Cologne, and Klavier-Festival Ruhr. This season, he appears ona three-week recital tour including appearancesin Washington, D.C., Seattle, Cleveland,Pittsburgh, and culminating in his return toCarnegie Hall. Other highlights includeplay-directing Mozart on tour with AcademySt Martin in the Fields and with the TorontoSymphony, and curating a series of MozartViolin Sonatas (‘Denk & Friends') at CarnegieHall. He also continues as artist partner of theSt. Paul Chamber Orchestra, with performancesthis season and next, and appears in recital inEurope, including his return to KalvierfestivalRuhr, Piano aux Jacobins, and the WigmoreHall, as part of a three-year residency.

Denk made his Nonesuch debut with a pairing ofmasterpieces old and new: Beethoven's finalPiano Sonata, Op. 111, and Ligeti's Études.His account of the Beethoven sonata wasselected by BBC Radio 3's Building a Library asthe best available version recorded on modernpiano. His recent disc of the Golberg Variationsreached no. 1 on the Billboard Classical charts.His recording c.1300-c.2000 has just beenreleased by Nonesuch Records with musicranging from Guillaume de Machaut, GillesBinchois and Carlo Gesualdo, to Stockhausen,Ligeti and Glass.

As 2014 Music Director of the Ojai MusicFestival, Denk wrote the libretto for a comicopera, which was also presented by CarnegieHall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival.He is also known for his original and insightfulwriting on music, which Alex Ross praises forits "arresting sensitivity and wit." The pianist'swriting has appeared in the New Yorker, theNew Republic, The Guardian, and on the frontpage of the New York Times Book Review. Oneof his New Yorker contributions, "Every GoodBoy Does Fine," forms the basis of a book forfuture publication by Random House.

(SHERVIN LAINEZ)

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