SONGS WITHOUT WORDS: MENDELSSOHN, BRAHMS & RACHMANINOV

Mendelssohn’s sets of Songs without Words for solo piano include some of the most original of his piano pieces – lyrical miniatures that he started to compose in 1830. The Song without Words Op. 109 was composed in 1845, with a dedication to Lisa Cristiani and this short but warmly expressive piece turned out to be Mendelssohn’s last work for cello and piano. Cristiani was a French cellist who had played with Mendelssohn at a chamber music concert in Leipzig in October 1845 and he was instantly charmed by her. One of the first women to have a successful career as a solo cellist, Cristiani was 18 years old when she met Mendelssohn, and the travelled Europe over the next few years. During a particularly arduous tour to Russia in 1853, Cristiani succumbed to cholera, and she died at the age of 26.

Andante con moto
Andante espressivo
Molto allegro e vivace
Moderato
Poco agitato
Andante sostenuto (Venetian Gondola Song)

Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words were highly original character pieces for solo piano. He composed eight sets (of six pieces each) between 1829 and 1845, starting with the present group from 1829–30. Mendelssohn seems to have coined the term: his sister Fanny wrote in 1828 that Felix had written ‘a Song without Words’ for her album, and that he was at work on several others – presumably some of them made their way into the Op. 19b set. (Incidentally, the pieces were originally issued Op. 19, but so were a set of six quite different songs for voice and piano; for the sake of clarity these became known as Op. 19a, and the piano pieces as Op. 19b). Mendelssohn’s careful grouping of the pieces in Op. 19b provide an extremely satisfying sequence, beginning with two Andante movements that are contrasted by key (E major and A minor), a brilliant and rhythmic piece in A major (sometimes known as ‘Hunting Song’), a slower piece in the same key, and an uneasy Poco agitato in F sharp minor, before the final rather melancholy ‘Venetian Gondola Song’ in G minor.

© Nigel Simone 2015

The last of a group of songs published in 1912, the Vocalise is, as its title suggests, a wordless piece for voice and piano. Dedicated to the Russian soprano Antonina Nezhdanova, Rachmaninov quickly set about arranging it himself for soprano and orchestra, then produced a version for orchestra alone. Subsequently it has been transcribed for many different instruments, but the saxophone is an apt choice, not only because of its closeness to the sound of a human voice, but also because Rachmaninov himself used the alto saxophone as a solo instrument on one memorable occasion, in the first of his Symphonic Dances.

Nigel Simeone 2013

Andante
Scherzo (Allegro)
Adagio mesto
Allegro con brio 

Composed in May 1865 at Baden-Baden, Brahms’s Trio was written for piano, violin and natural horn. It was first performed on 28 November 1865 at a concert in Zurich, with Brahms at the piano, the violinist Friedrich Hegar and a horn-player called Mr. Gläss. It was – and remains – an extremely unusual instrumental combination, and Brahms adapts the sonata form of the first movement to the exigencies of the natural horn (without too many excursions into remote keys), evoking a mood that seems to capture something of the shadowy romantic forests that surrounded Brahms in Baden-Baden when he wrote the piece. The second movement exploits the ‘hunting’ characteristic of the horn to memorable effect, with a darker contrasting section in the unusual key of A flat minor. The Trio is at its most personal in the slow movement, with its rare marking of mesto (sad, or melancholy). Brahms’s mother had died three months before he composed this piece, and it is easy to hear this heartfelt movement as a lament for her. Just before the end, the horn, then the violin, play a melody that is a premonition of the main theme of the finale. The finale itself is a bucolic delight, galloping to a joyful conclusion.  

Nigel Simeone © 2014 

Allegro appassionato
Intermezzo
Allegro con sentimento
Presto, quasi l’istesso tempo

Born in Hungary, Dohnányi’s early compositions had been praised by Brahms, and he always had a strong sense of being part of the Austro-German Romantic tradition. In this respect he was very different from his classmate at the Budapest Academy, Béla Bartók, but his music is always beautifully crafted and has very individual harmonic touches. The Sextet for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and horn was completed on 3 April 1935 and it is the most unusually scored of his chamber works. It was first performed in Budapest on 17 June 1935, with the composer at the piano, and received warm reviews. One critic specifically praised the unusual choice of instruments, commenting that ‘the combination … is neither coincidental nor arbitrary.’

The musical structure is unified by Dohnányi’s use of a dramatic rising motif – often on the horn – that is first heard right at the start. The first movement is brooding and tense, but ends with hope (the rising motif returning in triumph). The Intermezzo includes a rather sinister march, while the third movement is a set of variations that includes one that is scherzo-like. This leads directly into the finale – an almost dizzyingly ebullient movement which suggests a kind of jazzed-up Brahms.

Nigel Simeone © 2011