CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
ATOS Trio

Weill Recital Hall
Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 7:30 PM

ATOS Trio
·· Annette von Hehn, Violin
·· Stefan Heinemeyer, Cello
·· Thomas Hoppe, Piano

MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66
CASSADÓ Piano Trio

SCHUBERT Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 929

Encore:
KREISLER Miniature Viennese March

Program is approximately 2 hours, including one intermission

Presented by Carnegie Hall in partnership with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (KLRITA).


The Distinctive Debuts series is made possible, in part, by an endowment fund for the presentation of young artists generously provided by The Lizabeth and Frank Newman Charitable Foundation.

Additional endowment support for international outreach has been provided by the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation.

Program Notes:

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)
Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66

About the Composer

Felix Mendelssohn penned his Second Piano Trio, Op. 66, while he was living in Frankfurt with his wife and family. Having declined an invitation to conduct in New York City, he spent the summer composing and the fall shuttling between conducting obligations in Berlin and Leipzig. He enjoyed a successful international career in the early 1840s, traveling to Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, London, and even further abroad.

In late October 1847, some six months after his beloved sister Fanny's tragic death, Mendelssohn suffered a series of strokes; he died on November 4. Composer and friend Robert Schumann served as a pallbearer at the funeral service in Leipzig; Mendelssohn was interred next to his sister in Berlin. The Second Piano Trio was the last chamber work he saw into print.


About the Work

Mendelssohn's star has often been overshadowed by Beethoven's, with the latter composer often seen as somehow more Romantic—even heroic. As musicologist Larry Todd notes, "Mendelssohn has been damned with faint praise as the most Classical of Romantic composers. Suspected of harboring too much technical perfection, his music is regarded as just not transgressive enough." Mendelssohn is seen as the "prig of genius," a timid composer of "fairy music" that possesses a limpid charm. Yet the composer's two piano trios offer a stunning response to such dismissals in their bold manner and dramatic force.


A Closer Listen

The Op. 66 Trio balances the virtuosic and the poetic, the impassioned and the lyrical. The opening is stormy and unsettled, and the quiet moments in the first movement are a matter of dynamics—the music is marked pianissimo ("very soft"). The piano part is as brisk, busy, and technically demanding as any Romantic tumult. But the brief, sunny passage in the major mode offers respite in which the violin and cello sing a rhapsodic duet. The lyrical melody is taken up by the piano before a return of the opening material, and the exposition ends with a grand choral passage. The middle section of the movement (the development) opens with the solo piano. Fragments of the sighing second subject then float through the violin and cello.

The Andante espressivo is akin to Mendelssohn's delicate Lied ohne Worte ("songs without words"). It begins for piano alone and continues with both violin and cello in close harmony—more a chorus, perhaps, than solo song. The composer described the Scherzo as "a trifle nasty to play." It's indeed a challenge for all instruments, but perhaps most difficult for the pianist. The Finale is a rondo that strings together highly contrasting themes. Most striking is the chorale-like third episode, introduced by the piano, that brings together all three instruments. The movement ends (and thus the trio) in the gloriously celebratory major mode.



GASPAR CASSADÓ (1897–1966)
Piano Trio in C Major

About the Composer

Gaspar Cassadó was a Spanish cellist and composer. Born in Barcelona to a musical family, he studied cello in Paris with Pablo Casals and composition with Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla. Cassadó spent the years of World War I back in Spain, but soon after embarked on an international career as both a performer and a composer, making Florence his home beginning in 1923. Three years later, he premiered his Cello Concerto in D Minor, dedicated to Casals, with his former teacher conducting. The two men had a falling out, however, prompted by Cassadó's
neutral stance during the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Whereas Casals quit the stage in political protest (he supported the Spanish Republican cause against Franco), Cassadó continued his career. As Nathaniel Chaitkin notes, the public feud cost Cassadó a recording contract with Columbia Records; very few recordings of his playing now exist.


About the Work

While in Berlin, Cassadó called upon pianist Giulietta Mendelssohn, whose late husband Robert was a nephew of the composer Felix and who had himself been a cellist. Cassadó was delighted to play Robert's instrument, a Stradivari purchased from (and named for) Carlo Alfredo Piatti. Inspired by their music making, Cassadó composed his own Piano Trio in 1926. It was premiered in Paris three years later.


A Closer Listen

Cellist Elaine Boda describes Cassadó's music as possessing "an aura of folkloric romanticism." His works draw on Catalan rhythms and melodies, but also reveal the influence of contemporary French composers, chiefly Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The first movement falls in traditional sonata-allegro form (a three-part form that lays out two constrasting themes, develops the two, and concludes with their eventual recapitulation). The first theme is a bracing flourish that leads to a quiet, murky transitional passage with long, sustained notes in the strings above repeated chords in the piano. The second, more lyrical theme then emerges in the strings.

In the second movement, folkloric elements rise to the fore; the sharp punctuations have been likened to flamenco music. The main theme, with its sinewy turns, is presented first by the cello, then in duet with the violin, and finally in chords by the piano.

The finale begins with a slow introduction; the movement proper is virtuosic—giving lie to the notion that Einstein (himself an amateur violinist) could have ever played the piece.



FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)
Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 929

About the Composer

In 1814, Schubert's career as a composer, especially of songs, exploded: At age 18, he wrote some 150 lieder. His productivity was astonishing; musicologist Robert Winter estimates that at the time, Schubert was turning out some 65 measures of music each day—not only songs, but also works for piano, orchestra, and chorus. A similar frenzy of composition came in 1822, which yielded the "Unfinished" Symphony and the "Wanderer" Fantasy for piano.

The next year, however, Schubert was homebound, suffering the first effects of syphilis. Despite his declining health, he continued to compose at a prodigious pace. In November 1827, he began the Piano Trio D. 929, which was performed on March 26 at a public concert devoted to his own music and dedicated to Beethoven's memory.


About the Work

Himself a violinist, Schubert was likely prompted to write his two piano trios by friends: violinist Schuppanzigh, pianist Bocklet, and cellist Linke—three musicians closely associated with Beethoven. The D. 929 Trio was begun some six months after Beethoven's death and may also be the result of his influence; the four movements of Schubert's Piano Trio follow the same general pattern as those of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and both works explore a cyclic design that knits together the separate movements with a thread of repeated musical material.


A Closer Listen

The first movement begins with a rollicking theme in octaves. A contrasting second theme (distinguished by six quickly repeated notes) is introduced by the piano; a third, more delicate idea is played by the cello and violin, becoming the main subject of the development.

The second movement is justly famous for its delicate, deliberate accompaniment (again featuring repeated notes) and understated, intimate melody, carried first by the cello. The tune is derived from a Swedish folk song, "Se solen sjunker" ("See, the sun is setting"), that features a striking octave fall. After the cello and piano have presented the main melody, the violin offers a more cheerful second theme. Both themes return, and the movement reaches an unexpectedly wrenching, dramatic climax that repeats the falling octave again and again.

The scherzo begins with a canon: The piano sweeps up to a repeated note; the violin and cello enter close behind with the same idea.

The principal theme of the slow movement returns twice in the finale. The melody appears in the cello above a shimmering piano accompaniment in the middle of the movement; it then materializes again at the very end to have the last word. The movement otherwise develops the basic unifying motive of the trio—repeated notes—to the extreme.

—Elizabeth Bergman

© 2010 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

ATOS Trio
·· Annette von Hehn, Violin
·· Stefan Heinemeyer, Cello
·· Thomas Hoppe, Piano
ATOS Trio

Annette von Hehn, Violin
Stefan Heinemeyer, Cello
Thomas Hoppe, Piano

The ATOS Trio has rapidly developed a strong reputation as one of the finest young chamber ensembles performing today. Formed in 2003 by violinist Annette von Hehn, cellist Stefan Heinemeyer, and pianist Thomas Hoppe, the ATOS Trio has been praised for its warmth of sound, its commitment to a wide-ranging repertoire, and its uncomplicated approach to fine interpretations and engaging performances.

Winners of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award 2007—the most important distinction for piano trios in the United States—the ATOS Trio plays concerts throughout Europe, Australia, and the Americas. It has appeared at prestigious festivals, including Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Festival Mitte Europa, and Bemus Festival Belgrad. The trio has performed Beethoven´s Triple Concerto with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica de Chile, and Bonn Academic Orchestra.

In 2007, the trio won four prizes at the Fifth Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition; never before in the history of the competition (held every four years) has a single ensemble garnered this many honors. The trio was also awarded First Prize at the 2007 Schubert and the Music of Modern Times competition in Graz, Austria, where they were also awarded a prize for the best interpretation of a Schubert work. The ATOS Trio’s debut CD was released in 2005, featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Kirchner; the trio’s second CD followed in 2008.

In Europe, the ATOS Trio was chosen by BBC Radio 3 to become part of the exclusive New Generations Artists program. Within this framework, several recording sessions and concerts at important festivals and concert halls in Great Britain are awaiting the musicians. A tour of Australia and New Zealand under the auspices of Musica Viva Australia is also scheduled this year. In addition to their concerts all around the world, the ATOS Trio has also released a new CD of works by Czech composer Josef Suk (1874–1935).


Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award

A biennial piano trio award, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (KLRITA) derives its impetus from the desire to honor the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio (Joseph Kalichstein, piano; Jaime Laredo, violin; Sharon Robinson, cello) in perpetuity by giving recognition to this prestigious ensemble’s contribution to chamber music worldwide. In addition, the award was created to encourage and enhance the careers of accomplished and extraordinarily promising young and "rising" piano trios, chosen every other year. The KLRITA is based upon the collaboration of 20 participating chamber music presenters and is managed by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. The award also provides for a CD recording of the winning trio by Azica Records and services offered by fine string-instrument dealer Kenneth Warren & Son, Ltd., for each two-year award cycle.