Louis Spohr (1784 - 1859)
Piano Trios Nos. 2 & 4

Louis Spohr won an enormous reputation during the nineteenth century as a composer, violin virtuoso, conductor and teacher as well as being renowned for his upright, noble character, a man of convinced liberal and democratic beliefs who was not afraid of speaking out against the repression and autocracy which abounded during his lifetime in the small German principalities (his contemporaries also saw this "upright character" translated into physical terms as he was nearly 6ft 7in tall). He was one of music's great travellers, wrote an entertaining and informative autobiography, compiled an influential violin tutor, invented the chin-rest, was one of the pioneers of conducting with the baton and hit on the idea of putting letters in a score as an aid to rehearsals. So when, in a Hollywood film about music, a Leopold Stokowski-like conductor taps his baton at rehearsal and says to the orchestra: "Back to Letter F, gentlemen", it is Spohr's innovation we are witnessing.

Spohr was born in the North German city of Braunschweig (Brunswick) on 5th April 1784, and as a boy showed talent for the violin. When he was fifteen he joined the ducal orchestra and by the age of eighteen had reached the stage at which the Duke of Brunswick considered him ready for further development. He was, therefore, sent on a year-long study tour with the virtuoso Franz Anton Eck (1774 -1804), taking in various centres on the way to the then Russian capital St. Petersburg. It was at this time that Spohr wrote his first mature compositions - some violin duets followed by his first Violin Concerto, Op.1. After his return home, the Duke granted him leave to make a concert-tour of North Germany and Spohr shot to overnight fame in the German lands after a concert in Leipzig in December, 1804, received an enthusiastic review from the influential critic Friedrich Rochlitz - not only for his violin playing but also for his concertos, especially No.2 in D minor, Op. 2. Spohr now set out on successful career which took him as concertmaster to the court of Gotha (1805 - 12), orchestra leader at Vienna's Theater an der Wien, where he became friendly with Beethoven (1813 - 15), opera director at Frankfurt (1817 - 19) and finally, Hofkapellmeister at Kassel (1822 - 57) where he died on 22nd October, 1859. In between, he found time for numerous concert-tours, most notably to Italy (1816 - 17), England (1820) and Paris (1821), with his wife, the harp virtuoso Dorette Scheidler (1787 - 1834). In later years he reduced the number of his public violin appearances but his renown as a conductor led to many invitations to take charge of music festivals, including the inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn in 1845 as well as further visits to England in 1839, 1843, 1847, 1852 and 1853. He also trained some two hundred violinists, conductors and composers and, indeed, he was the antithesis of the "lonely, tormented artist" .He loved parties, was a gifted painter, an enthusiastic rose-grower, a keen swimmer and hiker, played chess, billiards, dominoes, whist and ball-games, and, as well as visiting such cultural attractions as art galleries, churches and the like, also toured factories, mines and other industrial installations, all in the pursuit of knowledge. He was also interested in politics and during the short-lived German national parliaments following the 1830 and 1848 revolutions he listened to as many debates as he was able. As a conductor Spohr championed many of the best composers of his time, even when he was not totally in sympathy with their style (Spohr's own idol and ideal was Mozart and, like his hero, Spohr was a committed Freemason). His repertoire ranged from Beethoven's symphonies, including the Ninth, concertos and quartets, Fidelio and the Missa solemnis, to Wagner's Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser, and he helped in the revival of earlier masterpieces such as Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Late in his career he added to his repertoire works by Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz and Liszt among others.

From the start of his career, Spohr aspired to be something more than just a violinist who wrote concertos, like Viotti, Kreutzer, Rode, Paganini, de Beriot, Vieuxtemps, Ernst or Wieniawski, and expanded his compositional scope to include opera, oratorio, cantata, lieder, symphony, chamber music and, especially in the first years of his marriage, works involving the harp. Gradually he took a place among the leading composers of his day, particularly for his fine concertos, overtures and first two symphonies. Soon after settling in Kassel, the success of his opera Jessonda in 1823 and his oratorio Die letzten Dinge (The Last Judgment) in 1826 won him a place in the accepted pantheon of great composers. Spohr's importance for his contemporaries and what captured them and enraptured them was his richness of harmony and command of modulation and chromaticism. While the content of his works made him, along with Weber, a pioneer of early Romanticism, he generally adhered to classical proportions when it came to form although his four programme symphonies helped to establish this genre. Later in the nineteenth century this classical side of his personality appeared old-fashioned to those brought up on the heady sounds of Wagner, Tchaikovsky or strauss and led to his relegation from his former high status. His best works, however, stayed in the repertoire throughout the century, while Jessonda was still staged at intervals in Germany (it was admired by Brahms and Strauss, among others) until it was banned by the Nazis because it showed a European hero marrying an Indian princess. In Great Britain The Last Judgment remained a favourite of provincial choral societies until the First World War when a reaction against things Victorian set in. A few works have stayed with us - the enjoyable Nonet and Octet are often performed by groups who want items to programme alongside the Beethoven Septet or the Schubert Octet; the 8th Violin Concerto, Op. 47, the one "in the form of vocal scena", can still tempt virtuosi; as can the four fine clarinet concertos (recorded on Naxos 8.550688-89). However, the slow revival of the rest of his output is only now under way but is already uncovering many delightful pieces.

The piano, however, had proved a notable exception to Spohr's gradually growing artistic triumphs. His own piano technique was rudimentary. Indeed in 1838 his Kassel assistant Moritz Hauptmann wrote to a friend: "Spohr said the other day that he would give a hundred Louis d'or to be able to play the piano." But Spohr was nothing if not dedicated in his determination to attempt "all branches of composition", as he put it. Within eleven years of Hauptmann's comment, he had produced five piano trios which rank among the best of the works dating from the later stages of his career. In the early 1800s he had felt that the piano, as it had been developed then, was not suitable for concerted works at all but only for the salon. By 1820, when he was in London and heard the English Broadwood pianos of the time, he changed his opinion and, as Dorette by now had been forced to give up the harp for health reasons, he composed for her a Piano and Wind Quintet in the hope of encouraging her to take up the instrument on which she had excelled in her youth. The quintet relies for its piano technique on the models of the virtuosi of the day such as Clementi, Field, Dussek, Hummel, Moscheles and Ries. Chopin, who thought the work "most beautiful", also complained that it was almost impossible to work out a practical fingering. So there events stayed until Spohr remarried in 1836, after Dorette's death. His new wife, Marianne Pfeiffer, was an accomplished amateur who soon introduced Spohr to the latest piano works of composers like Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schumann. Fired with enthusiasm Spohr composed three large-scale sonatas for violin and piano, a number of smaller pieces for the same combination and a mass of songs with piano accompaniment. His first Trio in E minor, Op.119 was completed in May, 1841,and appeared to rapturous acclaim by the critics so that his publisher was soon asking for more. It was not for nothing that the trio was published as Trio Concertant, for, as one reviewer pointed out: "Through all the details of its construction, even to the manner of using the instruments in combination, it has no parallel in the trios of Beethoven, Hummel, Mendelssohn, or any other writer." It was Spohr's specialist knowledge of string techniques which enabled him to give the violin and cello equality with the piano and also to introduce novel sonorities which earlier trio composers scarcely envisaged, such as at times giving the cello the real bass of the ensemble with the pianist's left hand playing well above it. The succeeding Trios No.2 in F major, Op. 123 of 1842, No.4 in B flat major, Op. 133 of 1846 and the two recorded here continued this process.

The Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op.123, which dates from April, 1842, is Spohr's grandest work in the form, being laid out on the largest scale. His intentions are signalled by the powerful opening while the second subject offers another example of imaginative scoring. The slow movement is one of the most remarkable creations in all Spohr, demonstrating to the full the unique sonorities the composer is able to draw from his ensemble. The tension is screwed tight until the thirteenth bar when the violin, silent till then, steals in as a consolatory middle voice. Later comes a dramatic outburst which the strings attempt to pacify with a version of the main theme. The Scherzo is both catchy and slightly grotesque, being followed by a perky Trio which Spohr cleverly integrates into the Scherzo repeat. The finale opens in the minor with a "travelling" theme while the second subject is one of those inspirations which" fall from heaven" .The final homecoming is decisive - "Spohr has not appeared so young and hearty for a long time" as one reviewer put it.

Spohr started his Piano Trio No.4 in B flat major, Op.133, in Kasselin May, 1846, and the first two movements had been completed by the time he visited the spa town of Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic) that June and July to take the cure for a liver complaint. It is somewhat lighter than the other trios, almost a divertimento, which is signalled by the omission of the standard sonata- form repeats in the outer movements and the inclusion of a minuet instead of a scherzo. The flowing first movement in 9/8 time has an untroubled dance-like character, the Minuet, which comes second, is stately and capricious by turns, while the slow movement is in Spohr's favourite mode of hymn-like nobility. The Finale sets the seal on the work's character and thereby hangs a tale. The strict daily regime prescribed for patients at Carlsbad insisted on complete rest from physical and mental exertion so Spohr avoided any composition until his creative impulse became so strong that he polished off work on the Trio quickly and afterwards referred to the Finale as Der Sprudelsatz (The Bubble Piece) because the bubbling springs of Carlsbad had restored his health and high spirits - as can be heard here.

Keith Warsop
Chairman, Spohr Society of Great Britain

If you have enjoyed this recording and would like to find out more about Spohr and his music, write to:
The Secretary; Spohr Society of Great Britain; 123 Mount View Road; Sheffield S8 8PJ; United Kingdom.

The Hartley Piano Trio
The Hartley Piano Trio was formed at London's Royal Academy of Music in 1980 under the guidance of Sidney Griller. A scholarship from The Leverhulme Trust brought further study, followed by a number of prizes and awards including the Incorporated Society of Musicians Young Artists Series and the Park Lane Group's Twentieth Century Music Series. The Trio, with a repertoire drawn from all periods, is in great demand throughout Britain and Europe and has undertaken concert-tours in France, the former Yugoslavia and Switzerland, in addition to festival appearances at Aldeburgh, Manchester and King's Lynn. Recordings include British, Czech and American trios, as well as a Beethoven disc that contains the composer's own trio version of his second symphony.

Jacqueline Hartley
The violinist Jacqueline Hartley has won a reputation as one of the foremost young orchestral leaders. She has made guest appearances with the London Bach Orchestra, the BBC Welsh and the Ulster Symphony Orchestras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In 1992 she was invited to lead the London Philharmonic Orchestra during their Glyndeboume season, while solo appearances include a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at Kenwood Lakeside Bowl.

Lionel Handy
Lionel Handy successfully combines a career as a soloist with the performance of chamber music and orchestral work, while serving as one of the youngest professors at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He distinguished himself early as a student at the Royal Academy and has a busy career that has taken him to the Americas, North Africa, Japan and Australia. His interest in twentieth century British music has brought performances of the cello concertos of Arnold Bax, Gerald Finzi and William Walton, as well as the first performances of new works by James Ellis and Philip Grainge. He plays a Venetian cello by Montagnana kindly lent by the Poulton family.

Caroline Clemmow
Born in London, Caroline Clemmow led the Kent Youth Orchestra as a violinist, before studying with a piano scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In addition to her work as a soloist and recitalist, she derives particular pleasure from the performance of chamber music in a very varied repertoire that has included a tour of the former Soviet Union performing complex twentieth century music, performance of music for percussion and piano with Evelyn Glennie and a major BBC series of late romantic French and Belgian piano quintets and quartets. A major part of her work is the flourishing piano duo with Anthony Goldstone.