SAINT-SAËNS Piano Trios The Muse and the Poet The Swan Cello Sonata No.1 Violin Sonata No.1. The Australian Trio

Transcription

1 SAINT-SAËNS Piano Trios The Muse and the Poet The Swan Cello Sonata No.1 Violin Sonata No.1 The Australian Trio

2 CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS CD1 Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 92 [37 13] 1 I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Allegretto III. Andante con moto IV. Grazioso, poco allegro V. Allegro 8 40 Piano Trio in E-flat major, after Septet, Op. 65 [17 50] 6 I. Préambule: Allegro moderato Più allegro II. Menuet: Tempo di minuetto moderato III. Intermède: Andante IV. Gavotte et Final: Allegro non troppo Animato La Muse et le Poète (The Muse and the Poet), Op ! Le Cygne (The Swan), from Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) 3 01 Paul Rickard-Ford piano II Total Playing Time

3 CD2 Piano Trio No. 1 in F major, Op. 18 [27 53] 1 I. Allegro vivace II. Andante III. Scherzo: Presto IV. Allegro 7 31 Catherine Hewgill cello Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32 [22 13] 5 I. Allegro II. Andante tranquillo sostenuto III. Allegro moderato 6 43 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75 [23 50] 8 I. Allegro agitato II. Adagio III. Allegro moderato 4 03! IV. Allegro molto 6 14 Total Playing Time The Australian Trio Donald Hazelwood violin Fenella Gill cello Michael Brimer piano 3

4 The works on these discs give a fair picture of the chamber music composition of one the finest of the French composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Saint-Saëns covered all genres and spread his interest fairly evenly throughout his long life. His chamber works span a period of nearly 70 years, from 1853 to 1921, and in the year of his death he wrote an oboe sonata, a clarinet sonata and a bassoon sonata. The present recordings span the period 1863 to 1910 and include all of the works for the violin cello piano combination, together with a violin sonata, a cello sonata, and The Swan. That we have here some great music cannot be doubted. In chronological order, the works in this collection are as follows: 1863 Piano Trio No. 1 in F major, Op Cello Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op Piano Trio in E-flat major (after the Septet, Op. 65) 1885 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op Le Cygne from Le carnaval des animaux 1892 Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op La Muse et le Poète, Op. 132 Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Saint-Saëns composed the second of his two piano trios in 1892, nearly 30 years after the first. He is known to have spent a comparatively long time over its composition. That he had a great deal that he wished to express is immediately evident from the fact that there are five movements. Why this piece is not better known is a mystery to this writer. It is a powerful work which encompasses a broad range of moods. It would not be out of place to recall at this point Mahler s statement to the effect that a symphony should encompass a whole world and, certainly on the practical side, this trio encompasses a world of techniques and textures as well. The first movement is awesome in its seriousness, the passionate climax at the start of the recapitulation being almost overwhelming. The tempo marking is Allegro non troppo, but the bars are very long, having four slow compound beats. In any case, the composer has provided metronome markings for all of the movements, so his intentions as to speed are clear. The second movement plays with various moods and textures, all being shaped by a basic five-beatsto-the-bar framework. 4

5 If ever a piece sounded as if it were starting in the middle, and with a question at that, the third movement does. It is based on a four-bar melody which supplies the basic material for the entire reflective movement, and allows for some marvellous contrapuntal expression. The fourth movement contains the most relaxed music of the whole work, expressed with graceful fastidiousness and, perhaps, wistfulness. With the fifth movement we are back to the intense seriousness of the first movement. The composer s love of polyphonic writing comes to the fore here. Again there is great variety of texture, but everything evolves inevitably. After a tender major-key interlude, the seriousness returns and the work ends with a speeded-up coda in which the instruments, playing in unison, seem to be rushing around frantically looking for a way to rid themselves of the burden of the thoughts that were behind the composition of this work. Piano Trio in E-flat major The composer s arrangement of his Septet for piano trio was no doubt motivated by the desire for greater possibilities of performance than would be possible for a septet which included the trumpet. The work was written in 1881 for La Trompette, a private music society, and was scored for piano, trumpet, string quartet and double bass. Some fanfare-like passages in the piano trio version will remind the listener of the work s original scoring. That Saint-Saëns was leaning towards the suite rather than the sonata is obvious from the titles he gave to the movements. The first, Préambule, provides ceremonial flourishes as well as other moods with some strong contrasts. After the opening flourishes, an important chordal theme appears; it is treated as a fugue subject, but it is also heard again in the last movement as the main material for its climax and conclusion. A second important theme long, sustained string notes over staccato piano chords in a minor key reappears as the main material of the third movement. The second movement, Menuet, is in the ABA form long established for such movements. The B section, however, is a hauntingly beautiful string melody over piano arpeggios, made all the more haunting for its suppressed feel and the fact that the violin and cello play the melody together at the same pitch. Intermède is the title given to the third movement which picks up the slow theme from the first movement, with its accompaniment, and extends it into a serious and powerful piece which one 5

6 writer has described as a dead march. The final, overlapping statements of the theme by the violin and the cello develop a deep major-key warmth that one often associates with the codas of Brahms. The last movement, entitled Gavotte, does indeed begin as one, and presents the composer s most light-hearted frame of mind in brilliant fashion, but after the requirements of that form have been satisfied, the chordal theme from the first movement returns as a fugue subject and the piece bounds on to an exciting conclusion. La Muse et le Poète This unusual work was written during a visit by the composer to Luxor, Egypt, in As the published description of the work ( Duo pour violon et violoncelle ) implies, the two string instruments are the main protagonists while the piano has a role that is mainly supportive. The writing for the violin and cello is much more concerto-like than that usually associated with chamber music and it was probably the realisation of this fact that caused the composer subsequently to orchestrate the piano part. It is published now as being with accompaniment for orchestra or piano. The piece is by no means well known, and when it is heard it is usually the orchestral version that is performed. The work is however of such an intimate character, and so sensitive in its expression, that this writer feels the original version (with piano) is greatly to be preferred. It was the publisher, Durand, who gave the work its title, not Saint-Saëns himself, but it is so apt that one cannot imagine he did not discuss it with the composer. The violin is the muse who gradually gets through to an initially moody and unreceptive poet the cello until a perfect relationship is achieved. What appears at first glance of the score to be a fairly episodic work is, in fact, superbly controlled and integrated. It is cast in one movement, and all in all is a brilliant conception, perfectly executed. Le Cygne (The Swan) Saint-Saëns wrote The Carnival of the Animals in 1886, at the same time as his Symphony No. 3, the Organ Symphony, but it was not published until 1922, the year after his death. It bears no opus number and he obviously intended it as a light, comic entertainment piece which would not have much continuing significance. If that was indeed the case then he was very wrong it remains the piece by which he is probably best known. The reason for that is, no doubt, the fact that he 6

7 poured as much love and care into its composition as he did into any of his works, and none of its movements bears this out better than The Swan, about which there is absolutely nothing comic. Saint-Saëns clearly realised that this piece had emerged differently from the others: he banned performances of the Carnival until after his death except for The Swan. Given that the accompaniment to the cello melody is scored for two pianos, this piece is, in fact, a trio of a kind! But whatever its genre, it is, of course, a masterpiece. Piano Trio No. 1 in F major In 1871 Saint-Saëns was instrumental in founding the Société Nationale de Musique, a society for the promotion of contemporary French music. This society achieved a tremendous amount, and composers with works that were performed there for the first time included Saint-Saëns, Franck, d Indy, Chausson, Debussy, Dukas and Ravel. Before the Société came into existence, according to Saint-Saëns, the French composer who was foolish enough to try his hand at instrumental music had no other course open to him than to give a concert of his own works, and invite his friends and the Press. It was at such an occasion that the Piano Trio No. 1 was first performed, in The trio reflects the composer s musical ancestry as a pupil of Camille Stamaty, who was in turn a pupil of Frédéric Kalkbrenner, both of them pianist/composers. Kalkbrenner had begun in a manner more akin to the broader approach of Clementi and Dussek, but after 1820 he began to lean more towards the Mozart-based style of Hummel. Stamaty used Kalkbrenner s famous piano-teaching treatise on the young Saint-Saëns. In this trio there is much delicate writing, but there are also moments of great strength. Much of the time the Hummel/Kalkbrenner connection is apparent. The work is full of ravishing melodies and evocative textures. At times the harmonic progressions are unusual, and the writing is brilliant. Saint- Saëns never lets the listener s interest sag; in this regard, one should mention the ease with which he sustains impetus. His fastidiousness shows itself in delightful detail. The first movement makes great play of cross-rhythms based on the trick of combining two bars of three beats each into one bar of six beats (divided into three larger beats). The music drives without a break through a pleasant emotional landscape that is a good foil for the deeper thoughts of the second movement, in which there is a strong leaning towards folk music. The third movement is a great romp in which the composer s sense of humour has full expression. The substantial last movement decides, towards its end, that it has been too serious and ends on the lightest possible note. 7

8 Cello Sonata No. 1 in F minor This sonata was composed in 1872 (the same year as the First Cello Concerto) and a greater contrast with the Piano Trio No. 1 could not be imagined. This is a passionate, tragic work, which expresses its feelings in no uncertain terms. The dramatic first movement pits cello and piano against each other in argument and with each other in agreement. Silence and single-note writing play a large part in the total harrowing picture. There are patches of relief every now and then, the major mode making fearful appearances. The second movement begins as if in a different world a wistful sustained melody presented with a staccato bass that alternates between the instruments. The middle section is more disturbed. This is an incredibly polished movement, in which every idea seems to be perfectly presented. The third movement returns to the world of the first. At an unbroken breakneck speed (the Allegro moderato indication refers to two beats in the bar) the cello gives out anguished legato phrases to begin with, while the piano seethes perpetually. The second subject of this sonata-form movement is in the major mode and the music seems to remember happier times, but not for long. The development section is one of Saint-Saëns most powerful creations and its climax is positively spinechilling. The return to a quiet start to the recapitulation is marvellously handled. The impetus seems to exhaust itself at the end of the recapitulation, but after two sustained chords gathers itself up again for the coda, and the work finishes, more powerful than ever. Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor This first of Saint-Saëns two violin sonatas dates from 1885, the year preceding that of the composition of the Organ Symphony and The Carnival of the Animals. It bears the stamp of his inspiration at its most active. The work is actually in four movements, but they are connected in pairs. The first is a very restless piece, but a more mellifluous second subject has a calming effect, particularly at the end of the movement where, as a coda, it facilitates a join to the second movement. However, the full potential of this second subject is realised only in the last movement when the composer brings it back triumphantly as a coda to the whole work. 8

9 The Adagio is a gentle conversation between the instruments in ABA form, full of marvellous textures and with an expressively decorated melodic line in the return of the main section. The Allegretto moderato is a softly spoken and typically refined scherzo with the addition of a choralelike melody which, again, adds tremendous interest to the texture. In the last movement, Allegro molto, the composer forces both instruments into a wild run-around; the violin runs the greater distance. The effect is akin to that of an etude by Chopin, say, where in spite of deliberate couching of the piece in technical terms, the musical expression is still as powerful as ever. This is a joyful piece, which even embraces triumph when the first movement theme referred to above is brought back. Michael Brimer 9

10 Recording Producers Stephen Snelleman (CD2 1-4), Thomas Grubb Recording Engineer Allan MacLean Mastering Thomas Grubb Cover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Recorded September 1999 (CD2 1-4) and 7-10 August 2006 in the Eugene Goossens Hall of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Ultimo Centre. ABC Classics Robert Patterson, Martin Buzacott, Hilary Shrubb, Natalie Shea, Laura Bell CD The Australian Trio. All other tracks 2008 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited. 10

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