Trio in A Minor for violin, violoncello and piano - Cello

His F major Cello Sonata was composed more than twenty years later alongside the last two violin sonatas and the C minor Piano Trio. The cello parts of both sonatas demonstrate his intimate understanding of the instrument, and his piano parts, of course, reflect his own distinctive style of performance.

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We can scarcely doubt that Brahms had a very clear conception of the sound and style in which he expected the sonatas to be played. He is known to have been very tolerant of performers who interpreted his music in ways that he had not necessarily envisaged, but it is by no means certain that he would have been content with a performance that lacked many of the features that he and the musicians whose playing he most respected regarded as essential attributes of a beautiful performance. Correct performance, which involved playing the notes accurately and precisely, just as they were written, was the prerequisite for an advanced student.

Only when this was achieved could the student begin to become an independent artist, and only then was it appropriate to depart from the literal meaning of the notation to employ the improvisatory practices that transformed a correct performance into to a beautiful one.

Piano Trios

These improvisatory practices included modifications of the notated rhythms within an essentially steady beat, and the application of unspecified hastening or relaxation of tempo; on the piano, the application of highly varied chord arpeggiation, where none was written, and anticipation or retardation of bass notes in relation to the melody; on string instruments, the achievement of cantabile, or expressive gesture, through the use of portamento sliding between notes or the embellishment of accented, or otherwise prominent notes with vibrato; on string instruments, too, the choice of bowing techniques was of key importance.

The requisite experience and judgment could be acquired by hearing great musicians perform, but there was always the hazard, as many treatise writers warned, that these improvisatory practices could be used excessively or unskilfully. But even within twenty years of his death, his friend Richard Barth complained that people no longer understood how to read his notation, and the practices that were not notated at all soon began to be condemned. As the older generation of players died out, many of these practices disappeared almost entirely, stigmatised as unwarranted liberties with the notation by the modernist arbiters of twentieth-century taste.

First to go was extempore arpeggiation; only in the places where it was specifically notated where the composer marked it because he regarded it as vital to use it there did pianists continue to arpeggiate chords.

Expressive portamento in string playing disappeared more slowly, yet by the middle of the century all but the most delicate, occasional use of it was regarded as tasteless. The result of this revolution in taste and attitude has led to a style of performance in nineteenth-century music that would have seemed quite alien, and almost certainly unsatisfactory to its composers.

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It is not, however, impossible to rediscover and employ the practices that Brahms and his cellist friends would have expected to hear in a beautiful performance of his sonatas. Certainly, the finer points of performing style are irretrievably lost to us, but these are far less important that the techniques that were integral to that style. In treatises on performance, including those of violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Hugo Becker, we can read not only details of the practices, but also discussion of the aesthetics of using them. From fingered and bowed editions of the Cello Sonatas by Julius Klengel and Hugo Becker we can see where leading cellists who played with Brahms employed portamento and particular bowings.

And in a few, precious early recordings we can hear Klengel, Becker, Joseph Joachim and even, faintly, Brahms himself, as well as other musicians associated with his circle. Our aim has been to provide the impetus for performers to rediscover and experiment with the improvisatory practices that Brahms and his colleagues expected in a performance that was both correct and beautiful. Shop Sheet Music Books.

London Musical Club Also known as: Fantasy trio in B minor, op. Browse other works by Miriam Hyde.

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Piano trio repertoire - Wikipedia

CD One hand on the manuscript. CD [Available for loan]. Out of stock We expect this item to be back in stock and available for purchase on 31 Jan