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.