Program Notes
200 Years
November 8 & 9
So what’s the deal with this program?
The piano was invented in (approximately) 1700 by a man called Bartolomeo Christofori. Compared to modern concert grand pianos, these first instruments were fairly small, with a five octave (60 keys) keyboard and a much quieter sound. What was new and fantastic about them was that they had dynamic range - meaning they could play both loudly and softly.
As the piano evolved over the next 200 years, improvements were made that allowed for greater dynamic range, better tone quality and a bigger keyboard. The changes were symbiotic - the piano evolved because music was evolving, and music evolved because a more virtuosic piano supported more virtuosic writing. In this program we will play 3 piano trios chronologically from very early Beethoven through contemporary music, and we’ll talk about the changes that happened along the way.
Beethoven Piano Trio Op 1 #1: Starting small
Okay, so technically this isn’t Beethoven’s first published work. When he was 11, and still a student, he published a set of piano variations. The Opus 1 piano trios are, however, Beethoven’s first published works as an adult composer presenting his music to the world as such, and they are (obviously) his first works with an opus number.
The trios were published in 1795. This was when Beethoven was still writing in the Classical style - like Mozart and Haydn. The piano he used to write this work only had a 5 octave keyboard, which is much smaller than the keyboards we have today. Later in his life, Beethoven would have access to bigger pianos - his last one had a range of 6 and a half octaves - but in 1795, he was much more limited in the notes that he could write.
He might break it, though…
Over Beethoven’s lifetime his piano writing reflected the greater capacity of the instruments as they became available. Some of those instruments were even designed specifically for him. His piano writing grew both in tonal range (lower notes and higher notes) and dynamic range (loud and soft). He could be much more bombastic on a stronger, bigger piano, and the evolution of his writing reflects this. Beethoven was known to be rough on his pianos, especially as his deafness progressed, and his stronger pianos were designed in part so that he wouldn’t break them as he pounded along.
But the Opus 1 # 1 is not there yet. This is young, Classical Beethoven with his little piano, and it is a beautiful example of his earliest writing style.
Anton Arensky Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 32 - Bleeding hearts
Arensky was a Russian composer who wrote during the Romantic period (1830-1900). The Romantics were all about the inner life of the artist. FEELINGS and EXPERIENCES were now on display. The considerably more restrained (maybe you could call it "polite") style of the Classical period was left in the dust, and now virtuosity and drama were the thing. Everything became BIGGER, and this expansion happened in all the ways that the Romantics could think of - from the number of players needed for orchestral works, to the length of pieces, the emotional content, the dynamics, the new use of dissonance… Music went from powdered wigs and buckled shoes to floppy coats and hearts on sleeves. Leading the charge was Beethoven. Actually, you could probably say that the whole thing was originally Beethoven’s idea, at least when it came to music. (There was also a corresponding Romantic movement in literature, painting and architecture that happened just fine without our intrepid hero). After Beethoven came other Romantic composers like Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Schumann (Clara, as well as Robert, please), Brahms...and Anton Arensky! The piano was really important during the Romantic period - if you had to pick a representative instrument for Romanticism, it would be the piano.
So, new pianos, please.
You can imagine that after Beethoven broke some pianos and wrote his Emperor concerto, piano writing and playing became considerably more wild. And 6 and a half octaves just wasn’t gonna cut it anymore.
By 1880, the Steinway company had a piano on the market that was similar to the concert instruments we know today. They had a stronger soundboard that was made of a single piece of wood instead of 2, a new way to string the instruments, and a keyboard spanning 7 octaves and a minor third (that's our standard 88 keys). This instrument gave Romantic composers more of what they were looking for.
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The Romantic representative on this program - Anton Arensky - is best known today for his chamber music, and his D minor trio is a really good example of the gutsy piano writing of the Romantic period.
Elena Kats-Chernin: Calliope Dreaming - Now what?
Kats-Chernin, a Soviet born Australian composer, has a pretty substantial career going. With plenty of commissions, performances by major orchestras, works for film and TV, and inclusions in events like the Olympics and the Rugby World Cup, she is an international name in contemporary art music. And her writing style is a really good example of how things have come full circle for many composers.
As for the piano, after the Romantics, things still continued to change. By the early 1900s there were new designs for soundboards, bigger instruments, reinforced bodies (for the pianos, not the pianists) and another keyboard expansion from Bosendorfer. And of course, in the 21st century we have expansion into digital and hybrid instruments as well.
It will be interesting to see where we go from here, and how composers will continue to be influenced and inspired by the instruments available to them. The journey of the piano is somewhat unique. Other instruments - like violins and cellos - have not really changed at all since the early 1700s. But then again, it’s hard to improve on perfection.
200 Years
November 8 & 9
