Artistry in Action: Chamber Series

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor
Saul Bitran, violin
Andrew Mark, cello
Michael Lewin, piano

LIZ LANE: Linear Lines
Anne Howarth, horn

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, op. 97, "Archduke Trio"
Saul Bitran, violin
Andrew Mark, cello
Michael Lewin, piano

LIZ LANE: Linear Lines
Liz Lane is a British composer, horn player, percussionist, and educator who has been active and acclaimed since she was very young. Her diverse works include music celebrating aerospace engineering for 280 musicians aged 7-70; a 40th wedding anniversary song cycle, recorded and played at a surprise party; a full-length ballet for the London Children’s Ballet; a co-creative event with older people choirs and dancers, facilitated by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance; and music for brass band and Bhangra. Lane is composer in association with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, composer in residence with Lydbrook Band in the Forest of Dean, and senior lecturer in composition and performance at the University of the West of England.

"Linear Lines explores a relationship between the musical language of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and the present day, some 800 years later. The complete chant, 'In principio omnes,' is used as the basis of the work, which is split into five sections, each a progressive soliloquy on the original musical material.

"For much of the piece, decorative grace notes symbolically relate to the drawing together of the two musical cultures by characterizing tied notes from the chant, the pitches taken successively from the initial phrase (unrepeated) and transposed up a major third. Throughout, a relationship between two ‘key’ centers a third apart represents a ‘flicker’ of an image between then and now."  

—Liz Lane (May 2009)

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor 
First performed in 1892 in Moscow, Rachmaninoff’s Trio No. 1 in G Minor (also known as the “Trio élégiaque”) was part of his debut concert as a pianist. He wrote the piece in a mere four days, only two weeks before the performance. The trio is scored for violin, cello, and piano, and is conceived in only one movement rather than the expected three or four. Its single movement is a sonata form, but it contains 12 smaller sections within its tumultuous 15-minute run time. 

Rachmaninoff’s childhood was a difficult one—his family had to move several times, his parents separated, and his sister died of diphtheria. Rachmaninoff remained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory until 1885, when he failed all of his academic subjects. He was then transferred to the Moscow Conservatory. This move turned out to be an enormous influence on his career; he began study with the notoriously strict piano teacher Nikolai Zverev and became a prodigiously skilled virtuoso on the piano. Rachmaninoff also had the opportunity to meet many of Russia’s leading musicians, including Tchaikovsky, who became an important influence and idolized mentor for the young composer. 

In this first trio, we hear both the influences of Tchaikovsky and the development of Rachmaninoff’s own compositional voice. The opening section begins mysteriously, with light accompanimental figures in the strings; and the piano introduces the main theme: soft, elegiac, and profound. The string instruments then each develop the theme—first, the cello takes it while the piano takes over the accompanimental figures, and the violin follows. The cello and violin then share the melody until the second section begins: a piu vivo. Here, the violin returns to accompaniment while the piano waxes philosophical, with material reminiscent of the opening. A major shift occurs 11 measures later, with a con anima marking and a decidedly contrasting melody in the violin—this sounds lighthearted and yearning in the beginning, but when the cello joins, the more somber mood returns. The section finishes with dramatic sweeps and enormous chords (classic Rachmaninoff sound) and lands in an appassionato section, in which the cello and violin play a version of the opening theme in octaves. This develops into a more intimate section that marks the development section, with fluttering accompaniment in the strings that gently follows a lightly flowing melody in the piano. A more accented version of this accompaniment and fragments of the melody in the piano lead into an extended piano solo, which passes into the violin and cello. The section is then repeated, launched by a repeat of the accented accompanimental figure in the cello, but now a fifth higher. The melody reaches a dramatic climax, rapidly descends, and then climbs back up, only to fall back into the recapitulation, in which the cello reintroduces the opening theme while the piano gently accompanies. As in the opening, the violin takes over in the second statement, and then the instruments play in a duet. The recapitulation continues with all the other material from the exposition: the piu vivo, the con anima, the build into the sweeping appassionato. The ending of the piece is perhaps one of the most striking moments, and is a clear homage to Tchaikovsky’s “Pezzo elegiaco”—the opening theme returns, but as a funeral march. 

In this piece, we can truly hear the beginning of Rachmaninoff’s characteristic style—melancholy lyricism, massive flourishes in the piano against grandiose closing themes, and powerful sweeps that peak just before the somber close. It’s unclear why Rachmaninoff would write an elegy at this time—his mentor and the major influence of this piece, Tchaikovsky, was still very much alive. The funeral march at the end may give us a clue, though—the piece Rachmaninoff references here was written by Tchaikovsky to mourn the death of Nikolai Rubenstein. Although this work may have simply been a nod to his idol, Rachmaninoff’s second trio, written two years later, was the true elegiac work, mourning Tchaikovsky’s death. 

—Ruth Hertzmann-Miller

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, op. 97, "Archduke Trio"
Published in 1811, Beethoven’s “Archduke” piano trio is a piece of great magnitude written during a time of extraordinary significance. This work represents, in many ways, the pinnacle of Beethoven’s middle “heroic” period; it was also the last multi-movement piano trio Beethoven ever wrote.  Beethoven dedicated this work, along with several others, to Archduke Rudolph—brother of the emperor, Viennese benefactor, and his own piano student. (Thanks to the archduke and a handful of other Viennese benefactors, Beethoven was granted lifelong annuity in 1809, freeing him from the dire financial straits that characterized his life prior.)

The “Archduke Trio” is a true behemoth of a piece. Its pervasive lyricism, noble character, intricate texture, and grand expanse seem a world away from his early piano trios. Unfortunately, its premiere in 1814 was highly problematic. Despite his advanced hearing loss, Beethoven insisted on playing the piano part. The famed violinist and composer Louis Spohr was in the audience: “Because of his deafness, there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist which had formerly been so greatly admired.” This proved to be the last time Beethoven performed in public. 

The first movement opens with a regal piano line, before cascading into broad and expansive thematic material, with piano largely taking the lead. The second movement, a scherzo, opens with a sprightly minuet-like texture, before delving into an undulating second episode. The third movement is a poignant and chorale-like theme and variation that fades directly into a rollicking final movement, which features punctuated syncopation, dense texture, and boisterous energy. 

—Anne McKee

Saul Bitran, violin, joined the Conservatory in 2019 and is an associate professor of violin. Bitran has been the first violinist of the award-winning Cuarteto Latinoamericano since 1986. He has received some of Mexico and Chile’s highest artistic awards, including the Bellas Artes Medal and Order of Merit Pablo Neruda. Learn more about Bitran.

Anne Howarth, horn, joined the Conservatory in 2021 and is an assistant professor of horn. Howarth is a founding member and outreach director of the mixed-instrumentation chamber group Radius Ensemble, a senior member of the wind quintet Vento Chiaro, and a core member of Juventas New Music Ensemble. She also holds principal horn chairs with the Lexington Symphony and Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra. Learn more about Howarth. 

Michael Lewin, piano, joined the Conservatory in 1990, and is the founder and artistic director of the acclaimed Boston Conservatory Piano Masters Series. A Steinway Artist, Lewin's active international career has taken him to more than 30 countries for recitals, major music festivals, PBS television broadcasts, and orchestral performances of a repertoire of 40 concertos with numerous symphony orchestras. Learn more about Lewin.

Andrew Mark, cello, is a professor of cello at the Conservatory. He was cellist of the Boston Composers String Quartet (1987–1994) and the CORE Ensemble (1993–2000), with whom he premiered more than 100 new chamber works. His festival performances include Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Newport Music Festival, Moscow Autumn Festival, Schreyahner Herbst Festival (Germany), Daytona International Festival, Chautauqua Festival, and Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Learn more about Mark.

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