Die Forelle

David Diamond, Partita for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano: Diamond (1915-2005) is a 20^th Century American composer best known for his 11 symphonies and other orchestral works. Early career influences included Roger Sessions, Nadia Boulanger, Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel, whose impact on Diamond’s melodic techniques can be seen throughout his works. He studied, lived and taught in the United States and Europe. Diamond’s academic positions included teaching at the University of Rome, the Manhattan School of Music and Julliard. In 1995 he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest arts award given by the United States Government. Diamond composed Partita in 1935 at age 20, when he was studying in New York with Paul Boepple and Roger Sessions. About the March 29, 1936 premiere, Diamond wrote, “It was among the first of my chamber-music works heard in New York, and was highly praised by Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions in the pages of Modern Music.” Partita is written in three movements: Allegro vivo, Adagio espressivo and Allegro molto. “In [these] three tightly-organized movements,” Diamond said, “it can be considered in sonatina form.”

Felix Mendelssohn, Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, op. 49, for Violin, Cello and Piano: Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German Romantic musician of many talents. He sang; played the violin, piano and organ; conducted; and composed. He came from a wealthy German family and was educated privately. By age 12, he was an experienced composer. From 1833-35 he was the music director in Dusseldorf. In 1835 he became the music director in Leipzig where he conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. His compositional style was conservative by Romantic standards, employing classical forms and emphasizing balance, proportionality and craftsmanship. Mendelssohn composed his opus 49 piano trio in 1839. It was an instant success, and has remained one of Mendelssohn’s best and most popular chamber works ever since.

Movement I presents two major themes, each introduced by the cello. Movement II is reminiscent of the composer’sSongs Without Words. Movement III is what one critic called “one of Mendelssohn’s elfin scherzos, short but extremely demanding of all the players.” And Movement IV gives the work a “fiery” finale.

Franz Schubert, Piano Quintet in A Major, D.667 (“Die Forelle” or “The Trout” Quintet): Schubert (1797-1828) lived a “tragically short life” in Vienna.” Thus, Robert Dubal began his characterization of this unlikely fount of Romantic music. Schubert stood only 4’11” tall, was chubby, had poor eyesight and was painfully shy. His career as a schoolmaster lasted only four years. He contracted syphilis at age 26 and lived only five more years. When aristocratic patronage was dying, “this most noncommercial of the great masters was … fortunate enough to have a network of friends who realized that he was a genius.” Schubert idolized Beethoven, who read some of Schubert’s works and asked to meet the young Schubert. Schubert met his idol on Beethoven’s deathbed, and shortly thereafter served as one of the torchbearers at Beethoven’s funeral. Schubert once supposedly said, “I am in the world only for the purpose of composing,” and during the remaining 20 months of his own life, compose he did. The “Trout Quintet” dates from an earlier, and happier, period in Schubert’s life. It was written on commission from a cellist patron who heard Schubert’s work when he and a friend were on a walking tour in Upper Austria during the summer of 1819. The Quintet’s five movements burst with joy and vitality. Its nickname comes from its signature Movement IV, in which Schubert quotes his own 1817 song “Die Forelle” (The Trout), and then adds five variations on the song. This Quintet was Schubert’s earliest chamber music masterpiece, and has been one of his most lasting.