October 10, 2009: Further origins

Those who have enjoyed the recent focus on "origins" at Davies Symphony Hall would probably have appreciated the program prepared by the Eroica Trio (pianist Erika Nickrenz, violinist Susie Park, and cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio) for their free recital last night in the McKenna Theatre in the Creative Arts building at San Francisco State University.  Ludwig can Beethoven was represented by his Opus 1, Number 3 piano trio in C minor;  and the program concluded with the Opus 8 B major trio by Johannes Brahms, his first effort at a piano trio completed in 1854 and subsequently revised in 1891 to a version one-third shorter than the original.  Between these two examples of major composers "getting off to a start," the Trio performed a more "mature" work, composed by Joan Tower in 2004 entitled "For Daniel."

Beethoven's Opus 1 trios were first performed in 1793;  and, while they were not dedicated to Joseph Haydn as the Opus 2 piano sonatas were, they offer a similar acknowledgement of Haydn's innovations and a youthful confidence in the ability to do Haydn (at least) one better.  Haydn's 94th G major symphony ("Surprise"), composed in 1791 and being performed this week by the San Francisco Symphony, sets a useful context.  The second movement of Opus 1, Number 3 is a set of variations that are certainly as inventive, if not as brash, as those in the second movement of the "Surprise;"  and the third movement, while labeled "Menuetto" is a clear effort to get beyond traditional dance forms.  Nickrenz even added in innovation of her own in her decision to perform the "white key" sixteenth note runs in the Trio of this movement (illustrated above) as glissandos, which made for a powerful effect in the octave doubling of the final statement.  Finally, this trio provides excellent support for some of the points Scott Foglesong made in his contribution to the current San Francisco Symphony program book, "The Sense of an Ending."  Foglesong wrote:

Indeed, we might think of Beethoven as "Mr. Coda" given his relish for impressive, expanded codas that often threatened to burst the boundaries of form.

Beethoven was already pushing the boundaries of the coda in the first movement of Opus 1, Number 3;  so this was an excellent opportunity to experience one of the "seeds" of his "stylistic signature."  Taken as a whole, then, this trio is an initial adventure to launch a much greater and more extended adventure.  The Eroica approached it with that sense of adventure and a recognition of the wit behind many of the inventive gestures that is so characteristic of early Beethoven.

The Brahms trio was also, in many ways, the beginning of a great adventure;  but, in his youthful enthusiasm, Brahms ultimately overdid it.  Among the four movements, the second Scherzo is the only one that did not get a major overhaul in 1891.  However, while Brahms may have tightened up his early efforts, there is still a "voice of youth" in the thematic material, not to mention the adventurous key of B major.  There is also a stunning stillness to the third Adagio movement, which was captured beautifully by the Eroica, who applied a judicious decision to take an attacca into the final movement, probably in reaction to the appreciative applause of the audience after the first two movements.  This move allowed the stillness of the fermata at the end of the third movement to hang there up to the statement of the first theme of the fourth.

Tower's "For Daniel" was written in memory of her nephew, who died in 2003 after a long illness.  It is an intensely emotional work, and the Eroica certainly provided the necessary emotional tension.  Nevertheless, there was little sense of a structural plan.  This is not to say that such a plan was absent but that it was not readily apprehended.  If the composition secures a position in current repertoire, we shall have more opportunities to hear it;  and, after experiencing the hearing several times, the appreciation of the listening may begin to take control.

I should conclude by repeating that this was a free recital brought to San Francisco State University through the good graces of the May Treat Morrison Chamber Music Center.  The basic objective is to bring more chamber music to more people.  The McKenna Theatre is a large space, and it was close to filled.  If the space itself is far larger than the sort of "chamber" for which such music was intended, that disadvantage was more than balanced than the service being offered to the San Francisco community.  From this point of view, one could not have asked for a better program than the one prepared and executed by the Eroica Trio.