Chamber Music

[gvans]

Except for the odd snide comment here about the peccadilloes of string players, I rarely read much on Piano Street about chamber music. As a firm lover of ensemble playing, I am curious as to why this is so. Many established professional pianists don't limit themselves to concerto and solo programs--most play trios, duos, quartets, and quintets as well.

I, for one, find chamber music has many positive attributes: it improves musicianship, timing, and listening skills, it encourages social interaction, and it is great fun to perform. The repertoire is amazingly varied.

I'm wondering if many PS readers do not have connections to string and woodwind players. May I make a suggestion? Join the non-profit ACMP, an international organization devoted to chamber music, and find out who is living in your area, and at what level they play. Then spend the time to learn a few pieces, and go to a play-in, or contact some players at your level. You won't regret it!

Glenn

https://www.acmp.net/index.php

[awesom_o]

Chamber music is my life's blood.

I regularly play


* violin and piano repertoire
*viola and piano repertoire
*cello and piano repertoire, both as a cellist and a pianist
*cello and violin duos
*baritone, tenor, or soprano repertoire-Lieder, French art song, and of course operatic arias with orchestral reduction
*symphonic repertoire arranged for piano 4 hands
I have also enjoyed playing trios and quintets in the past. I would love also to try playing a piano quartet-the Schumann springs to mind though I'd so dearly long to play the cello part for that one.

Chamber music is my absolute favourite past time!

[gvans]

You are an amazing musician, awesom_o.

As luck would have it, I'm playing the piano part to the Schumann Eb now, or rather, learning it. Also the Faure C minor, and the William Alwyn Rhapsody for piano quartet. Alwyn is a rarely played 20th century British composer whose chamber works seem uniformly lovely.

Piano quartets have a rich, wonderful sound. Of course, the logistics of adding that violist can make life more complicated than merely organizing a trio, but that's part of the fun. If all goes well with our upcoming concert, we may tackle the three Brahms P4 quartets. Or maybe not. That's a bit much. Maybe one of the Mozarts, the P4 Phantasy by Frank Bridge (another Brit!), and just one Brahms.

[awesom_o]

I think the jury is still out on whether I'm amazing or not. I'm certainly a musician, however. Wait until I publish my sonata for the final verdict 

I am envious that you are playing all of those piano quartets. That 3rd movement, to me, is love itself. I think I'd really rather play the cello for that one! I've played the QUINTET in Eb plenty of times-another of Schumann's finest compositions!

I've been meaning to give Frank Bridge another shot-I recently heard my friend performing his Viola Sonata and it was quite wonderful.

I must confess I haven't explored Alwyn's music at all yet.

[gvans]

That 3rd movement, to me, is love itself. I think I'd really rather play the cello for that one! I've played the QUINTET in Eb plenty of times-another of Schumann's finest compositions!

The Eb 3rd mvt for piano is very moving, too. I haven't gotten to the quintet yet. He wrote them both, along with three string quartets, in 1842, I think, his chamber music year. Liszt had been bothering him to move to larger forms after he spent the year before writing over one hundred lieder. You can get a lot done when you're bipolar and in the manic phase.

I've looked at the Brahms quintet some over the years. There's a Dvorak, too.

If you ever play trios, there's a Catoire Trio I've been looking at, very beautiful, late Russian romanticism.

Have you posted your sonata yet in the audition room?

[awesom_o]

I've played the Brahms Quintet as well. I have not worked on the Dvorak yet. Trios are the neglected side of my chamber music experience. I played the cello part in the Mendelssohn D minor when I was much younger, and I played the piano part of the Beethoven op. 1 no. 3.

I would love to play more trios in future. My brother is a professional violinist and his girlfriend is a professional cellist, but alas we are separated by a vast ocean.

I'd love to look at Catoire, though I must confess my attention span for beautiful, Russian romanticism is more-or-less fully taxed at the moment by the Rachmaninov two Rhinos in the key of D (Sonata no. 1 and Concerto no. 3), the slow movement of the 2nd Symphony arranged for 4 hands, as well as two sonata and numerous skaszki of Medtner.

Most of my repertoire now is Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic. I'm very interested right now in the 'transitional period' between the Classical and Romantic eras. Composers like Cherubini, Boely, and Czerny.


I haven't posted my sonata in the audition room yet. I am preparing to give its premiere some time in August.

The Sonata was actually a recent project over the last week. I found, while cleaning, an old theme I had composed about a year ago, failed to develop, and had cast aside. Looking at it again after some time away caused me to reassess its value, and I decided to resume work upon it.

My main project over the last few months has been a collection of somewhat shorter pieces which I have called Tales. I've been meaning to book my recording engineer so I can lay down the last few Chopin Etudes and begin recording my own work. He's a busy fellow.

[ahinton]

For challenge, excitement, intellectual rigour, drama, lyricism, structural control, harmonic and melodic richness and sheer expressive power, why not try out the utterly compelling Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 51 (1901-08) by Florent Schmitt (1870-1958)? - one of the greatest works in the medium ever composed, in my view, though all too rarely programmed.

Best,

Alistair

[gvans]

For challenge, excitement, intellectual rigour, drama, lyricism, structural control, harmonic and melodic richness and sheer expressive power, why not try out the utterly compelling Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 51 (1901-08) by Florent Schmitt (1870-1958)? - one of the greatest works in the medium ever composed, in my view, though all too rarely programmed.

Best,

Alistair

Yes! I found a snippet on you-tube, and it seems wonderful. An hour long--and the piano part very virtuosic and Lisztian. The adjectives people use for it: monumental, epic, etc. Since Schmitt (a Frenchman with a Germanic name) died in 1958, less than 70 years ago, there are copyright issues with posting his work on you-tube. But here's the bit I found, complete (unfortunately) with voiceovers from the musicians:

Right now I've got my hands full with the Schumann and Faure piano quartets, thanks, but maybe some day...

[gvans]

Trios are the neglected side of my chamber music experience.

I played the Beethoven C minor, Op. 1, no 3 recently, too. Great piece. Did you gliss the C major descending scale in the Scherzo?

For myself, trio-wise, the three works of Brahms, esp. the B Major, rise like 8000 meter peaks.
Also Schubert Op. 99 and 100... Mozart E Major... Archduke... Ghost... Ach. So much great literature, and those are just the well known ones. Trios are so much easier to put together logistics-wise than quartets or quintets, and the cello and violin balance with the piano so well.

[ahinton]

I played the Beethoven C minor, Op. 1, no 3 recently, too. Great piece. Did you gliss the C major descending scale in the Scherzo?

For myself, trio-wise, the three works of Brahms, esp. the B Major, rise like 8000 meter peaks.
Also Schubert Op. 99 and 100... Mozart E Major... Archduke... Ghost... Ach. So much great literature, and those are just the well known ones. Trios are so much easier to put together logistics-wise than quartets or quintets, and the cello and violin balance with the piano so well.

So may I recommend the second trio of Bridge - one of his finest works?...

Best,

Alistair

[gvans]

That is a fine work...and a handful to learn. We have the score to some of his trio miniatures, in addition to the quartet, and may try them first. Also the first trio, the Phantasie Trio, composed in his youth, is beautiful. I can't find a you-tube version of the second, but here's seven minutes of the last movt. of the Phantasie, played by a virtuosic group at a Vermont summer festival. Some scholars call Bridge the "bridge" between the 19th and 20th centuries...not a bad appellation.

[ahinton]

That is a fine work...and a handful to learn. We have the score to some of his trio miniatures, in addition to the quartet, and may try them first. Also the first trio, the Phantasie Trio, composed in his youth, is beautiful. I can't find a you-tube version of the second, but here's seven minutes of the last movt. of the Phantasie, played by a virtuosic group at a Vermont summer festival. Some scholars call Bridge the "bridge" between the 19th and 20th centuries...not a bad appellation.

The nine miniatures are delightful works to be played by amateurs with no great proficiency but which are nevertheless wonderfully rewarding. The Phantasie in C minor is somewhat challenging but indeed a beautiful work well worth exploring. The second trio is really one for the seasoned chamber music ensembles only, but a most exciting and emotionally highly charged piece that is utterly individual in its conception and realisation.

In fact, if there's such a thing as a duff piece of chamber music by Bridge I have yet to encounter it!

Best,

Alistair

[kj77]

One of my favourite pianists, a new discovery, was a great chamber music player until she lost her sight 10 years ago. She now performs mainly as a soloist, but you hear in her playing now, and in her chamber music recordings, how she changes her piano sound to match the texture and phrasing of the musicians she is playing with. Thrilling to hear, and Barenboim, Argerich et al all do, so are clearly hugely influenced by their own chamber music making:
https://www.christinecroshaw.com/discography

[gvans]

Wow. Christine Croshaw has one monster technique. Love the Saint-Saens.

[kj77]

I agree but listening to her play, and having watched her live, her hands don't move. Its incredible. Everything is about the music, she is very humble in the service of the composer but the playing really sparkles. I read in her biog from a Kings Place (London) concert that she is a recording a disc of Faure's solo piano this year. Now that I want to hear!

[kj77]

You will like this gvans. You can hear how chamber music, song accompaniment and collaboration had informed this performance recently, even tho she is only warming up:

[gvans]

Thanks for the link. That's a superb performance by Christine Croshaw. Her power and subtlety leave little doubt.

May I suggest, though, as a comparison, you listen to the same piece played as a piano trio. There is a synergy, a deep amalgam of spiritual depth the various musicians combine in creating that, IMO, builds emotion far beyond what the solo piano, even as played by such a fine artist as Croshaw, can create:

[kj77]

Thanks so much for that suggestion - beautiful! And the strings allow the harmonies to slide into eachother. Faure is under-rated...!
Glad you're enjoying Christine Croshaw as much as I am. I hope more members come to appreciate her playing too.

[gvans]

Faure is under-rated...!

I'd say. He's like Bridge, Catoire, or William Alwyn, although admittedly somewhat better known.

I am learning his C minor piano quartet, Op. 15, and the piano score, like a piano part to one of Brahms' chamber works, plays fine as a solo work. As you may know, Faure was best friends with Saint-Saens, another virtuoso (the guy who offered, as an encore at a Paris concert, any one of Beethoven's 32 sonatas--by memory--at age 12). Faure's piano scores require technique, sensitivity, and mastery of dynamics. He uses strange harmonies that force the fingers and hands to move in unexpected ways. His work is difficult but immensely rewarding.

And you're quite right...Croshaw does his virtuosity justice.

[kj77]

You're right, Faure does require understated virtuosity. I really am looking forward to the Croshaw disc of Faure. I read in her biog that she records it this year with the Meridian Records label so I guess we could expect something by around Spring 2014?
Here is another clip of her playing Chopin's 4th Ballade in an ad for a concert series:

Glad we are encouraging a platform for this pianist. Yes she has had a good career, but more people should know about playing like this