Henry Litolff - Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 47 (1848)

Описание: Henry Charles Litolff (7 August 1818 – 5 August 1891) was a virtuoso pianist, composer of Romantic music, and music publisher. A prolific composer, he is today known mainly for a single brief work – the Scherzo from his Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D minor – and remembered as the founder of the Collection Litolff (today part of Edition Peters), a highly regarded publishing imprint of classical music scores.

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Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 47 (1848)
Dedication: Monsieur James Wittering

1. Allegro (0:00)
2. Andante (11:23)
3. Scherzo. Molto Allegro (17:41)
4. Finale. Presto (23:18)

Leonore Trio
Benjamin Nabarro, violin
Gemma Rosefield, cello
Tim Horton, piano

Hyperion recording

Details by Jeremy Nichols
Litolff wrote his Piano Trio No 1 in 1850 (1848 according to IMSLP), the year before the Concerto symphonique No 4, and dedicated it ‘à Monsieur James Wittering’. It opens, unconventionally enough, with a plaintive motif on the solo cello. Though the sombre mood prevails for just sixteen bars before we are thrust into the scintillating bustle of the first subject, it is this first motif that propels one of the principal ideas of the movement. The writing is Mendelssohnian at one moment but is often, given the piano’s virtuoso passagework and abrupt changes of figuration, reminiscent of Alkan and his Piano Trio No 1, Op 30, composed a decade earlier and with which Litolff must surely have been familiar. The music calms to introduce the lyrical second subject [2'39] but rises in intensity before a perfect cadence brings the exposition section to a firm conclusion at 4'25. The unpredictable Litolff then introduces a fugal treatment of the opening motif before revisiting many of the preceding ideas and, having moved into the tonic major, moves inevitably to another perfect cadence to conclude the movement—but no. The cadence is interrupted for a coda that must surely end with a D major triad. Again, no. Litolff wrong-foots us and the very last chord unexpectedly flattens the F sharp to end in the tonic minor.

After this whirlwind, balm is offered in the guise of a serene Beethovenian chorale. There is little respite for the pianist, however, who is kept on the qui vive for the repeat of the main theme, after which a new, more threatening passage takes the movement to a climax (note the strings’ prominent pizzicato scale passages under the piano’s restatement of the main theme). The scherzo, too, has a robust theme that puts one in mind of Beethoven, offset by writing of delicate charm more reminiscent of Mendelssohn. Like the slow movement, judged to perfection, it lasts not a moment too long. The presto finale begins in D minor and contrasts a muscular main theme with a graceful and lyrical companion followed, subito, by a fiery and thrilling few pages dominated by the piano’s relentless triplet scamperings. The first theme returns, the music modulates into the tonic major, the second subject reappears and the piano’s breathtaking passagework returns, the strings floating over the top—one of Litolff’s favourite devices. The prestissimo final bars lead to an emphatic major-key conclusion.