There are serenades out of which symphonies or divertimenti may easily be made, merely by omitting movements, in the one case, or by reducing the number of performers, in the other. There is no reason why Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik may not be performed either orchestrally–with double basses–or as chamber music. The style, the inner bearing, determines whether such works belong to chamber music or the symphony, to the divertimento or the string quartet.
Mozart, His Character, His Work, by Alfred Einstein (1945) pg. 170
At our January concert in Jordan Hall, the first of the calendar year, we presented Four Firsts of their kinds from four different composers. For our February concert at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre we present Three Lasts, so to speak: the last of Mozart’s Six Two-Viola String Quintets, the premiere of Elena Ruehr’s Piano Quintet based somewhat upon Schubert’s Trout Quintet that we last performed on our November concert; and last, but not least, the better-known version of Brahms’s earliest Piano Trio in B major, Op. 8, that he revised years after completing his third piano trio. Each work references styles or developments in chamber music history that made them possible and necessary.
As Alfred Einstein might also have suggested, String Quintet in E-flat major is one of Mozart’s works whose thematic content, forms, and scoring blur the lines between what might ordinarily be heard within the orchestral concert hall, as background or outdoor divertimenti, or in salon chamber music. The presence of two viola parts enriches the chamber texture with a shift to a darker tone than the string quartet; however, using them together to open the work with a horn call evokes the greater outdoors. The second movement theme and repeat structure will call to mind the second movement Romance (Andante) from his most popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1787). The Trio section of the third movement Menuetto uses a theme that Mozart could have heard (or sung!) at a local beer garden on a sunny afternoon. For the Allegro finale, he returns without doubt to his greatest chamber music inspiration, the string quartets of Franz Joseph Haydn. We recall that Mozart had dedicated at least six of his quartets to Haydn published between 1782 and 1785. The Finale bears a strong resemblance to that of Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 64, No. 6, which is in the same key of E-flat major!
Elena Ruehr’s Piano Quintet for violin, viola, cello, bass and piano (2023), the tenth gift to us from the BCMS Commissioning Club, is scored for the same complement of instruments as is Schubert’s Trout Quintet per our request, hence it’s title, Bächlein Helle. Elena explains:
In the first line of Schubert’s song Die Forelle (The Trout) it states “in einem “Bächlein Helle” which translates into English as “In a clear little brook”. My work was directly inspired by both the same lyrics by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart and the song and subsequent quintet by Schubert, famously known as The Trout Quintet. I had two direct inspirations: first, Schubert’s Quintet starts in A major but then takes an unusual turn into F major…The other source of inspiration was related to the text of the original song:
A young boy admires a fish swimming in a stream, then a fisherman catches the fish and the boy is rather disturbed.
Although Schubert and Schubart’s metaphor had a different meaning at the time, to me it is an interesting metaphor about modern life: we are all consumers, but we are conflicted about our consumption and how it challenges the natural world we live in. This conflict is expressed through the conflict in the harmonic source material I chose. The piece begins with conflict, but ends with acceptance.
You might be interested in knowing that Schubert’s Trout Quintet, with a movement of variations on the song, was itself inspired by a similar quintet for the same forces, arranged from a previous Septet by Johann Nepomuk Hummel. That septet also included a variation movement based on a Schubert song. Last season we performed Hummel’s Quartet for clarinet and strings on our series.
Our program concludes with Piano Trio Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms, one of his most revered chamber works. We are performing its better-known revised version from 1889. Published in 1891, it came years after his third and ‘final’ Piano Trio completed in 1886. To several of his friends and supporters who knew the earlier version, Brahms expressed his usual ambivalence, self-critical dismay toward the revision:
To his publisher Brahms said the first version “was indeed poor, but I don’t mean that the new one is good.”
“I was strangely affected by the old–new trio. Something within me protested against the remodeling…J cannot get rid of the impression of its being a collaboration between two masters who are not quite on a level.” (Elisabeth von Herzogenberg)
All in all, the work as it began and evolved draws from Brahms’s deep knowledge and appreciation of the music and composition processes of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Liszt. Perhaps that is why it remains well-loved today.
Enjoy!
