Seraphim Trio

Friday, 15 October at 8pm

Helen Ayres (violin), Timothy Nankervis (‘cello), Anna Goldsworthy (piano)

Programme

MOZART – Trio in C for violin, ‘cello and piano, K 548

HAYDN – Trio in F sharp minor for violin, ‘cello and piano, Hob XV:26

SCHUBERT – Trio movement in E flat for violin, ‘cello and piano, D 897, op posth 148, Notturno

BEETHOVEN – Trio in E flat for violin, ‘cello and piano, op 1, no 1

About the artists

Founded in 1994, the Seraphim Trio comprises violinist Helen Ayres, ‘cellist Timothy Nankervis and pianist Anna Goldsworthy. The trio is celebrated for its vitality and rapport, and its innovative programming. Since winning the prize for Leading Piano Trio and the Audience Choice Award in the 2001 Australian National Chamber Music Competition, Seraphim Trio has performed internationally and throughout Australia. It appears regularly for Musica Viva, is frequently broadcast on ABC Classic FM, and is a regular guest at Australian music festivals. The trio maintains a robust commissioning program, and has worked with a range of Australian composers. In 2008, its recording of Damian Barbeler’s Exquisite Blood won ‘recommended work’ at the International Rostrum of Composers.

‘In a superb performance, wonderfully sustained and engaging, the Seraphim Trio projected its collaborative delight to memorable effect.’ The Advertiser, May 2008

Programme Notes

HAYDN Trio no 40 in F sharp minor for violin, ‘cello and piano, Hob XV:26

Allegro / Adagio cantabile / Finale: Tempo di menuetto

In 1794 and 1795, Haydn completed three keyboard trios, Hob XV:24-26, which he dedicated to him intimate friend, Rebecca Schroeter, a widow in London whom he greatly admired – and, in view of her frequent correspondence, greatly admired him! The third of these trios is in key of F sharp minor, an unusual key for Haydn – his only other major work in this key is his Farewell symphony, no 45, written thirteen years earlier.

The second bar of the piano opening of the first movement includes a seven-note semiquaver fragment, played by the violin and piano, which gradually becomes rather important in the rhythmic build-up of the movement.

The slow movement is the same music as that in the slow movement of Haydn’s Symphony No 102 in B flat, of 1794, and is sometimes described as a transcription of the orchestral score. There are, of course a few differences in presentation which are in keeping with not having a full orchestra in the trio version, including the omission of some repeated sections.

The finale is in the style of a minuet and seems rather subdued after the controlled intensity of the adagio cantabile. This movement lacks dynamic markings throughout, except for a crescendo leading to a forte passage near the end. A recurrent motif from the start of the movement serves to bind the whole together.

Speaking of the work as a whole, Robbins-Landon remarks that “…nowhere do we find this ‘Erhabene’ [sublime] side of Haydn’s genius more poignantly, more intimately and more compellingly put forward than in this private, yet published, Trio in F sharp minor for Mistress Rebecca Schroeter”.

MOZART Trio in C for violin, ‘cello and piano, K 548

Allegro / Andante cantabile / Allegro

Around the time of the composition of Mozart’s last three symphonies (summer, 1788), the composer was prolifically busy. Among the works he wrote at this time are three piano trios, K 542, K 548 and K 564. Mozart's great biographer, Hermann Abert, considers that these works are “not of quite the same high level” as the string divertimento, K 563, completed a month earlier, “even though they are all entirely worthy of their creator”. The piano trio in C, K 548, was composed between the first two of these three great symphonies. Alfred Einstein says that the work "seems like a rather pale forerunner" to the Jupiter symphony [in the same key], and that although "it is classic in its mastery, […] it does not have the vitality of invention that we find in the three great Trios, or their thematic richness and conciseness.

The work has a simple structure. It opens with an allegro with a notable development section. The second movement, marked andante cantabile, is in a relaxed mood, with a succession of beautiful, warm melodies. Abert writes that this movement is “distinguished, above all, by its soaring catelinas and intricate figural writing”. In the Rococco finale, rondo, movement, many inter-related themes are, as Roger Hellyer says, "adroitly interwoven into a virtually non-stop welter of activity".

SCHUBERT Trio movement in E flat for violin, ‘cello and piano, D 897, op posth 148, Notturno

Adagio

It has been suggested that Schubert intended his brief – about nine minutes – but lovely single-movement piano trio known as the Notturno as the slow movement for his B-flat piano trio, D 899. The movement, marked adagio, was published by Diabelli in 1846, eighteen years after Schubert's death.

BEETHOVEN Trio in E flat for violin, ‘cello and piano, op 1, no 1

Allegro / Adagio cantabile / Scherzo: Allegro assai – Trio / Finale: Presto

Beethoven's opus 1 piano trios, composed between 1793 and 1795, were not, of course, his first works nor even his first piano trios. The so-called 'no 9' trio, composed in 1791, was not published until after the composer's death and the trio no 10, also in E flat, was composed in 1972. The opus 1 trios were dedicated to Beethoven's friend, Prince Carl von Lichnowsky. Unlike the earlier works, these trios have four movements, and the fast minuet-like movements are called scherzi.

The first bar of the op 1, no 1, trio starts with a chord, played fortissimo, followed by a rising arpeggio motif, played pianissimo and staccato on the piano. This motif, in one form or another, really forms the basis of the first movement, in which the piano dominates and real dialogue among the instruments is scarce.

The first theme of the second movement is introduced, in the first nine bars, by the piano alone. However, although the piano still plays a commanding role in most of this movement, there is much more dialogue among the instruments than before.

The playful scherzo is introduced softly by the strings, the theme shortly supported by the piano in a motion that includes a repeated four-note phrase and an interesting acciaccatura motif. The lyrical trio section brings a change of key and then, after the repetition of the scherzo without repeats, the movement ends with a short, 16-bar, coda, played piano at first but concluding with a gradually slowing, pianissimo, passage.

The finale is an energetic, fast moving, movement marked presto. It is written in rondo form. The nine-tone leaps played by the piano at the start introduce the first theme are heard in various forms throughout the ensuing few bars. These introductory leaps are followed by an arpeggio motif, similar to what we heard in the opening movement, still staccato but this time falling instead of rising. The movement rushes to its close through a series of fortissimo chords and sforzando moments.