Felix Mendelssohn - Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2024
- - Composer: Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 -- 4 November 1847)
- Performers: Beaux Arts Trio
- Year of recording: 2004
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (for piano, violin, and cello) written in 1839.
00:00 - I. Molto allegro ed agitato
10:05 - II. Andante con moto tranquillo
17:54 - III. Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace
21:50 - IV. Finale: Allegro assai appassionato
The 1st Piano Trio was published in 1840 and has since been recognized as one of the composer's best chamber works (along with his Octet, Op. 20) and is one of his most popular. It is a lively, melodic piece that is satisfying to perform. After his initial work on the Trio, Op. 49, Ferdinand Hiller, a pianist and friend of Mendelssohn, suggested the composer revise the piano part to make it more brilliant. It was this piece that prompted Schumann, in a review, to assert that "Mendelssohn is the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of musicians...."
- Without introduction, the cello states the song-like main theme of the first movement against a syncopated accompaniment in the piano. Later, the violin joins the cello with a distorted version of the theme. Variations of the theme fill the transition to the second subject, an arching melody on the dominant that is also introduced by the cello. Mendelssohn fragments and layers both themes in the development, which does not stray very far from D minor, the key on which the movement closes. In the recapitulation, Mendelssohn adds a violin counter-melody to support the return of the main theme.
- The piano introduces the second movement, Andante con moto tranquillo, with the melody in the right hand and the accompaniment divided between the hands, as in a number of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words (especially Op. 62, No. 1). Below this, the bass line in the piano walks along methodically and must be carefully balanced with the accompanimental figure and the melody. After the piano states the lyrical, eight-measure theme, the violin repeats it with a counterpoint in the cello.
- Mendelssohn's Scherzo is concise and light. As in the Andante, the piano first states the main theme, which begins to reduce itself to fragments almost immediately. A rhythmic germ from the first theme permeates the movement, except in the more lyrical central section, the theme of which resembles material from the first movement.
- After its first few pages, the Finale begins to sound heavy handed, largely because of the busy piano part. All types of keyboard writing occur in the movement, from close-position chords to swirling arpeggios and chromatic octaves. The cantabile moments are refreshing, as is the shift to D major shortly before the close. - เพลง
i understand nothing that everyone is talking about in the comments, i just think this is very beautiful and i am gonna listen to it a lot.
There's nothing wrong with that! Enjoy the music!
@@bio6588 thank you i just felt very uneducated in this reply section hehe
@@requlus Yeah I was in the same boat until I went to music uni. But, music is music, regardless of how complicated it is! If it's good, It's good! Listen on!
That just means you have excellent taste in music! If your not a musician and still enjoy this kind of music it purely means you have good innate taste in music
@@jamesjordan4796 so true man, so true, wise words there
My piano teacher belonged to a trio which recorded this. When my grandmother died I played the recording over and over and got some solace, some sense of rightness in the world.
omg this hit deep, I've thought about this comment a lot now
Wow.
drama queen
@@MM-ii9ef Queens like Proust
What a sublime world we would have in which this music were the most serious cause for contemplation.
Magnific coment
@@kerencanelo8580 0
These are the types of melodies that get stuck in your head!
Heart
Man, I am a great fan of yours.
Mendelssohn was incredibly good at that!
It didn’t get stuck in my head tho
The second movement is sublime! They really took their own time with it - relishing every phrase, respecting all its nuances, and bringing out its bittersweet character!
I completely agree - most recordings play it slightly faster but I do love this interpretation
I absolutely LOVE Felix Mendelssohn! When I was younger I painted with Fabric acrylics Aubrey Beardsley's portrait of Mendelssohn on the back of my blue jean jacket. I've ALWAYS been very artsy/crafty besides being a musician.
That’s actually really cool
@@lunar.6091 thanks, Lunar!
5:55 my heart
It's gorgeous, isn't it.
@@Le_Trouvere true!
why does this only occur once😅
If there is anything more heavenly and beautiful than the main theme of the first movement, I have not heard it yet.
When it came to themes, Mendelssohn was right up there with Beethoven and Brahms.
I love his chamber music!
100 points!
I agree!
I think he's up there with them in everything! I rate him as one of the top 7 or 10 composers of all time.
TOTALLY AGREE!!!
maybe the second movement
A wonderful opus,, alternately gentle, then rich and robust. For me this is possibly Mendelssohn's greatest chamber work. His "dream" fairies flit about here and there in this too. A terrific performance here. Thanks to all concerned,
Das schönste Klaviertrio der ganzen Musikgeschichte: ein Wunder!
Und Tschaikowsky trio !
What a miracle this piece is
Yes 😊
My grandmother passed away today, and even though I have never heard this piece before, it immediately struck me and reminded me of her. I have no idea why, since like I said, I have never heard it before...
My trio suggested this
I'm the pianist
I'm gonna die
It's hard for the piano! I'm an amateur pianist and I did 1 and 2 mvts for a local house concert. It took a few years off my life!! But it's beautiful.
yes, you are, but you're gonna love it :D
Yeah my teacher suggested this piece to us too. In 2-3 months, I memorized the piece's first movement, with only sight-reading over and over. We played in 140 bpm or something like that. The original speed of the piece is faster than that. But it was my first trio. It is very funny piece if you want to show off some.
@@tezguan Oh! I often do that too: sightread the piece and memorize it that way! It's indeed a great piece to play. I also play the cello XD
@@tobirocha Yeah, it's good way to memorise pieces, but there are better options I guess! :p
The last chords of 1st movement are wonderful (both how written and how played). Like a last gasp of air...
And what to say about the first chords of the first movement?
That rising up theme is one of the best written in history of music.
Yes, I completely agree with that. As a pianist, when I especially play the first movement, it always gives me chills, especially almost at the end of the movement. In my opinion, out of all four movements, the first movement is especially my favorite. The others are also amazing, but....there's just something about the first that appeals to me.
I played this when I was 17, possibly the most perfect music for an emotional teenager!
This piece is featured in the book “Never Too Late,” by a man who started serious study of the cello at age 50.
Awesome
Hilarious
who?
cool
❤❤❤ keep going! It’s worth it (by a woman who’s also a cellist 😊)
1:54 minor mode exposition (D-) modulating to the major dominant (A+) relatively rare.
I noticed it too, I was surprised, but nonetheless I was very delighted!
Piano trios tend to make composers very bold. This is simply another example.
Yes, though it's worth noting that it's staged as a "false" A major that soon enough collapses to minor (starting at around 2:40). The same thing happens, for similar reasons, in Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata and Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet.
@@Cherodar At 1:54 the music modulates from D minor to A major for the appearance of the second theme; I'm afraid there's nothing "false" about that. If later in the course of the exposition Mendelssohn had presented the same theme in A minor, then perhaps we could apply the term "false" to its first appearance. Obviously that is not the case. The music does go back to A minor, true, but that's beside the point because when it does we have already heard the second theme in A major.
The "Kreutzer Sonata" is a curious case; I'm glad that you brought it up. In that piece, the second theme is in E major, but only momentarily. The theme is repeated ('corrected') immediately in E minor (minor dominant). As tempting as it may be, even in that case using the term "false key" would be out of place. The effect is more of a modal inflection: we hear the second theme back to back in E major and E minor with no other music in between. In the recapitulation, the same theme is presented in A major/A minor, as expected. Stories attached to Kreutzer Sonata 'could' attribute instantaneous mode changes to something beyond the music itself, but let us refrain from anecdotal speculations. Schubert, as we know, took modal oscillations to a whole new level. Since we're talking about the "false" phenomenon, coincidentally, in Kreutzer Sonata there is a false recapitulation at letter L; the real recap being nine bars before N. Interestingly (and thankfully!) the score of Kreutzer Sonata too is uploaded by olla-vogala, here: th-cam.com/video/5YKmb7_y3E8/w-d-xo.html Take a listen if you like.
As for "Death and the Maiden," I'm afraid your comment is quite irrelevant. In that piece, the second subject is in F+, relative major, a conventional choice, and then later in the recapitulation, it's in D+, the tonic major key; again, very usual, and therefore, completely different from Mendelssohn's Trio. Finally, in the Mendelssohn, at the recapitulation, the second subject appears in D+, which reaffirms that the key of A major in the exposition was, after all, the true, and not the false key. Enough of that! For me, the most successful movement of this Trio is its Scherzo, whose appeal should not come as a surprise to us, knowing that Mendelssohn's 'forte' was his Scherzi.
Additional Information: in the exposition of minor-key sonata forms, the second theme is traditionally in the relative major key (the key of mediant). Abundant examples from the repertoire demonstrate this. Minor dominant (v) is another option, although less frequent in the 19th-century. Examples are Brahms's G minor Rhapsody for piano, Mendelssohn's String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, and his Scottish Symphony. Major dominant as the secondary key is rare. Examples are the first movements of Brahms's Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, also the fourth movement of his Third Symphony, Schubert's Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 784, and of course, the Trio under discussion.
@@NovicebutPassionate I think we're using the word "false" in importantly different ways. Of course when it goes to A major for that second theme, it's "really" in A major--no dispute there. I'm talking "false" in terms of rhetoric, narrative, and generic norms. Early-nineteenth-century composers like Mendelssohn knew their heritage, and knew full well that in the baroque and classical worlds they were inheriting, the dominant major was not a viable destination for a minor-key exposition--the only options were the relative major and the dominant minor. When someone like Mendelssohn (or Beethoven in the Kreutzer) sets a second theme in the dominant major, it's a vision of a mirage--a thing that cannot be--and it's always torn to shreds sooner or later by the inevitable turn to minor. You make a nice observation that the Beethoven and Mendelssohn differ in that Beethoven repeats the same theme again in minor whereas Mendelssohn doesn't, but I think the larger-strokes main point is the same: that the theme in the dominant major, offered up as a hope of rescue into the major, is shown to be untenable because it's the "wrong" major. Of the other dominant major examples you listed, two are by Brahms, who's later and seemed to treat the dominant in minor keys importantly differently (his fourth symphony and first cello sonata, both in E minor, go from minor v to major V in a way that would have been totally alien to Beethoven or Mendelssohn, who do only the reverse), and the Schubert sonata you mention does also have it decay to minor, even though it's quite late in the exposition.
For Death and the Maiden, I'm not talking about the F major theme. I'm talking about what happens after that--the music ploughs onward towards a big V of A, and presents a vision of that same second theme in A major. But then it, like the Beethoven and Mendelssohn examples, is quickly shattered again by the dominant minor, and the exposition ends in A minor. I think one of our bigger points of misalignment here is that you're paying more attention to the *first* key in which the second theme appears, whereas I think it's more important where the exposition ends. Both are, of course, important--but I'd argue that what happens to the theme is of at least as heavy a consequence as where it starts.
An excellent piano concerto in Trio form. There must be a reason to write a piano accompaniment in this way. He obtained a leading voice a unifying element that needles all the work in a great masterpiece. Thank you excellent.
Franco Bonanni Mendelssohn composed two wonderful standard piano concerti, and two more concerti for two pianos, and a concerto for violin and piano, and another, later piano trio. All of these are superb works that are sheer joy to listen to, and rank along with Schubert and Beethoven as the finest in the early Romantic period.
@@timothythorne9464 yes you are right . I know all of them. This trio is an example of excellent piano and chamber writing. You can not expect less. Mandelson is a fine romantic composer. I love everything he wrote...thank you.
I agree! I hear this as a piano concerto with violin and cello!
The piano is certainly the star. Wonderful performance.
The piano is background noise, the strings are voices.
@@euomu shut up, idiot
As beautiful as the piece is, this is honestly the reason I find Piano Trios so hard to listen to. Somehow the ensemble always feels unbalanced. Certainly better in this piece as in other Trios, but still the case.
Oddly, pieces for one instrument and piano tend to feel much more balanced.
I played the second movement as a teen, and that harmony between the cello and violin, especially with their initial entrance, was pure magic.
@@klop4228 what about piano quartets and quintets?
Questo stupendo trio di Mendelssohn merita tutti gli elogi di Schumann! Mendelssohn dimostra qui di essere, direi, il Mozart dell'angoscia, colui che, come scrive Schumann, supera le contraddizioni dell'epoca
Played with the élan and passion that the music demands, Surely one of Mendelssohn's finest compositions. The second melody in the slow movement is to die for.
sublime , le génie de mendelsohn dans toute sa splendeur ,, une interprétation somptueuse du beaux arts trio ,,
The second movement is celestial.
Thank you so much, olla-vogala. One of my favorites. D minor is a haunting key.
Only started to listening to chamber music late in life. I always thought of Mendelssohn as not quite top tier, but this work and others of his have proven how wrong I was. He now ranks among my favorite composers.
I love the 2nd mov. So touching.
Wow! Huuuuge exciting performance of this colossal work.....It'll take me a while to calm down.....Thanks!
Yesss! It happens so often to me! Especially with Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven. Such great men, that I can't stop hearing to their pieces!
Deep impression was reaching my soul in the grassland of vast content undulating in the wind of
Mendelssohn . 🍎
Shin-i-chi Kozima amazing beauty in this trio! Mendelssohn, Mozart and Schubert particularly were gifted melodists. Every phrase in this trio literally sings.
This is a very strong contender for best piece ever written. You may argue that there are catchier melodies, or deeper sonorities in other pieces or compositions more diligent to form. But there are just so many great things in this piece it's miraculous to behold. Thank you for presenting this masterpiece in such an enjoyable way!
Liri Ronen my teacher used to say that the word for mendelssohns music is, audience effective.
Mahler xd
Maybe up there as one of the best trios but I wouldn't go as far to say that it is the best piece ever written.
The Shostakovich trios can definitely give it a run for its money
I just found this and think it's beautiful!!!😍
beautiful simply beautiful to my ears...
ivonne munera Mendelssohn is the best composer for any work which includes the violin. He really evokes heartbreak and sadness in his works, and well as sheer joy and elation (as in the scherzo movement here, and the finale of the Violin Concerto).
Thank you very much for posting with the weitten commentary. It's so nice to get a bit if an introduction to put the piece into context. Thank you!
This is so beautiful! Mendelssohn is the best
Absolutely! Love the PFP lol
I love this. Great recording, great performance, great piece!
Bar 91: despite all the effort to make the piece Romantic, Mendelssohn cannot resist the urge to quote Mozart.
26:50-28:03 is great. From the modulation at 26:50, to the violin at 27:10, to the piano at 27:50, the intensity is awesome
I love this interpretation!!
...une des plus belles musiques que l'on peut écouter
Thank you. A favourite piece and so good to have the score. 🎉✨👏🏼👏🏼
1:26 My Favourite Things
下手っピで、下手っピで「アンサンブルなんて出来ません！無理です‼️」と逃げ続けていた私をヴァイオリンの先生が、ピアノの生徒さんの練習の為選び「本番はプロを頼むから、代弾きして。」と引っ張り込み、何べんも練習だけチェロの席に座らせ弾かせてくれた思い出の曲。全く弾けていなかったけど楽譜とにらめっくらし、準体験して、今では身も心も踊り出します。
thank you olla. wonderful interpretation !
9:04 - 9:11 This moment is as if they're playing as the titanic is sinking. Or as if Zekkyl is drinking his last vial to write the letter. It's the final, final, final moment of hysterical and frenzy-like outburst, ironic to the atmosphere surrounding this moment, which adds to the manic and tragic quality. Really beautiful, almost like capturing life as a whole.
One of my favorites!
Thanks for the upload. I always look forward to new videos on your channel, as you never fail to bring back memories with music I love, or introduce me to beautiful pieces I've never heard before. You've fueled my passion for music, and I must thank you for this.
Absolutely gorgeous. What a pianist!
Rest in peace, Maestro Pressler! Thank you for the music!
The second movement is my favorite!
just beautiful i agree,,
so touching
Thank you. Gorgeous.
This is the best performance✨
Comme emporté dans un rêve étrange ce trio sublime , chacune de ses notes transforme l "ennui du jour en féeriques lumières nocturnes ,, en architectures des lumières des couleurs , errance près des rivages , esquifs entre les récifs de verre multicolores , le beaux arts trio nous emporte vers le monde inconnu ou la vie et la mort s enchevêtrent ,, l éternité ,,
Thanks for uploading!
Excellent performance and the last notes in the second movement are there.
In the first movement, I can't help but hear "when the dog bites, when the bee stings.."
Me too!
from bar 412 to 425 or in the beginning from bar 99! You are totally right. Same notes. Now I hear it, too
HarmonicParadox I so enjoy "the musical kinship" that I find when others appreciate and then share their thoughts here...I heard it too...thanks for your comment.
Yes, I think it's safe to say that Felix saw The Sound of Music before writing this.
Or...er...something like that.
this is truth :)
Thank you for posting. Listening to this song reminds me of a video of a million dollar trio I've seen before. It was very helpful to see the sheet music. If there is a continuation of the performance, I would love to see it.
5:54
Beautiful
Great ! Thank you a lot
Magnificent introduction. Thank you. Beautiful and Didactic post.
wonderful piece
Breathtaking piece by genius
Superbly played 2nd movement.
wow! love this!
Bravíssimo! ❤️
Sublime.
Great interpretation. Wonderful pianist
Wonderful!
meraviglioso!
Che musica meravigliosa!
Sublime!
How delightful!
:D
Loved playing the 1st 2 movements at college! Have to compete it one day.
1:26-1:30, "when the dog bites, when the bee stings..."
I think you meant 1:35
oh shit
lol
LOL
The playing and recording are as near perfect as is possible.
Its much slower than the recordings I am used to. But its beautiful at that tempo. Especially the second movement.
bellísimo
This is very helpful. I subscribed it already.
Uk 🇬🇧
Ok let’s admit it is more like a piano piece with some melodic cello and violin rather than a piano trio :)
That's because the piano is background music and provides the framework. String instruments are voices :) It's the same in pop music. You have the background music and usually lyrics
Beautiful rendition! Very nice.
Thanks!
My favorite movements are the first and second in that order! Gonna see if I can find a violinist and cellist to play this with
good luck!!
olla-vogala thanks mate!
What kind of grade level would this be, from the perspective of the violin or cello? (I am also interested, and play the piano) :)
Andrew Morrison I'm not sure what you mean by grade level, it's all relative to how well you play. This is definitely not a beginner piece but it's also not that hard either, especially the first two movements. Cello part doesn't seem too bad either, just a ton of shifting into the upper register.
Ok, thanks. I just dont really have much of a clue with instruments other than the piano. I think I'm going to try to do the first movement
As with his two piano concerti, he write sublime second movements!
Am I the only one that thinks My Favourite Things was inspired by this? 🤔
The piano writing is idiomatic and easier than it sounds just to play "the notes", but I agree with the commentators that is is challenging to keep it light and not turn things into a piano sonata with violin and cello accompaniment.
I don't know the history and particulars, but so often a composer's choices are strongly influenced by the musicians he/she imagines will play the piece. Mozart is a famous example---hair-raising passages in the clarinet quintet for violin that Mozart knew he would be playing. Woe onto them who attempt the piece without a first-rate violinist (I have heard excruciating performances when the string quartet and especially the first violin just weren't making it).
Yeah that's what I observed too! I just ordered the Henle and will be starting soon, but just sight reading it you notice the piano writing lies under the hand really well!
9:45 what a magician
Possibly the best chamber music finale ever written. Sounds like Brahms already !!! Genius Mendelssohn
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👌👍ШЕДЕВРАЛЬНО🎼🎹
12:40 is lovely
anyone else find themselves crying over the second mvmt...
Mendelssohn's 2 Trios are 2of my favorite works of his; religion doesn't seem to infiltrate chamber music as it does orchestral and choral music.
D minor: "the key of repressed passion" says Daniel Silva in his otherwise suspect novel "The Order". I suppose so if one thinks of things in that light. Beautiful none-the-less.
never, never i said.... never has such sounds makes my innards vibrate to the cosmic language that is music, especially the second movement. the correct amount of tensions in the notes makes it all too perfect for the imperfections of intervals.
listen with a cup of hot tea at 4pm in the afternoon.
Reminds me of Brahms. The rhythm here is the most interesting Mendelssohn has ever come up with.
Sublime
émouvant
brilliant rendition by the beaux arts trio. many thx for sharing music and score. like many romantic piano trios it has a massive and difficult piano part. that's quite a problem. we played it several times with marianna shirinyan: these concerts were pure fun. all the other concerts with other pianists were a severe fight. the piano part is too massive for modern concert pianos. all the pianists who take the dynamic notes by mendelssohn literally should listen to a performance with a period instrument with its smoother & quieter sound. this trio is far more mozart that tchaikovsky. --- one remark about mr. pressler, can't stop myself from saying that :D he's a wonderful pianist. the entire musical world knows. but he's such a prick at the same time. and such a lousy teacher: when we did a masterclass in lübeck with that piece by mendelssohn, we had good luck. but the trio right before us hadn't - i think they did ravel - and they did it very well in my ears - OMG he was sooooo insulting and mean to them- i can't understand why they spent so much money to be tortured by that man. i would have left the room immediately. (his 2 collegues were quite friendly btw). i studied with yfrah neaman many years, as a teacher he was legendary - & he never was unpolite, always showing respect to anyone he gave a lesson. that's how it should be. my opinion.
+chris ingres I agree that this piece calls for a piano with very light action, otherwise the sound can be very overpowering indeed! I didn't know that about Pressler, sorry to hear that his character is like you described...
brilliance & meanness are siblings sometimes.
+chris ingres ... many thanks for your thoughts and technical insights on this piece... ... I regret the lack of decency and respect in your work experience ...
Eh, I've seen different people respond to it differently. Sometimes people need a kick in the pants to get things going in the right direction. He's not doing any favors telling people something was good if it was bad.
Josh Infiesto
...it wasn't bad at all. don't tell people they failed their profession when they want to do sth professional. there's a border between being constructive and destructive. my opinion :)
I am only listening to this because it is mentioned in Daniel Silva's 2020 thriller, The Order
Genial obra de Mendelssohn
Si, eso es cierto.
Goo goo gas gaa
Gygygui
Finally I got a Melody