Description
3. Adagio non troppo (from: Brahms, Piano Trio Op. 8 | First Version, 1854)
Recorded on 30 April 2024 in Müllheim (D)
Performed by:
Katharina von Behren, violin
Božo Paradžik, double bass
Maria Sofianska, piano
Brahms was not only an extraordinarily prolific composer; he was also remarkably ruthless towards his own music, destroying a great number of works he no longer considered worthy of survival.
This makes the music of his youth particularly fascinating to me. Brahms’s early works are full of traces of the music he admired. In the first movement of this Trio, there are even two quotations from Bach’s Art of Fugue, while the fourth movement contains a quotation from Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte. The Ländler in the Scherzo also strongly recalls Schubert — in particular the world of his Schwanengesang.
Interestingly, the third movement is different. There are no actual quotations here. Yet the beautiful duet in the B section, immediately following the pizzicato duet passage, has always reminded me very strongly of the atmosphere of Corelli’s “Christmas” Concerto Grosso.
When Brahms revised the Trio many years later, his musical language had already become much more intellectually structured and rigorously constructed. I personally suspect that, as his own musical identity became increasingly developed, he may have become uncomfortable with some of the traces of his youthful musical influences.
Perhaps this is one reason why the first version fascinates me so much. Brahms later revised the Trio extensively and apparently wished to distance himself from his youthful work. Yet there is such extraordinary beauty, spontaneity and freshness in this original conception.
Brahms was so severe in judging his own early music that he eventually decided to stop composing altogether. It does not surprise me that such a highly self-critical composer could reach such a point. Fortunately, he soon changed his mind — and we can be very grateful that he did.
In this performance I play the original cello part on the double bass, without any alterations.
Božo Paradžik