i. Allegretto 
ii. Lento 
iii. Allegro vivace 

Leopold Smit (1900-1943), known as ‘Leo’, was a Dutch composer. Born in Amsterdam, Smit studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam before moving to Paris in 1927 where he was in close contact with the group of composers known as ‘Les Six’ – musicians including Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Francis Poulenc who pioneered the ‘neoclassical’ style.  

Smit moved back to Amsterdam in late 1937. In November 1942, he and his wife, Lientje, (both Jewish) were forced to move to the ‘Transvaal’ neighbourhood, a deportation district in the east of Amsterdam. In March 1943, they were summoned to the Jewish Theatre (today again known as Hollandsche Schouwburg and National Holocaust Memorial), then transported to Westerbork. By the end of April, the couple were transported to the Sobibor extermination camp where they were murdered upon arrival. 

Smit’s musical output is small but compelling. He was clearly influenced by the composers in his milieux – his use of polytonality (writing in two or more keys simultaneously) was inspired by the music of Darius Milhaud, for example, while the Trio for flute, viola and harp borrows Debussy’s instrumentation. There are obvious influences of jazz and light music (foxtrot, Charleston and rumba), also; Smit was particularly fond of George Gershwin. 

Smit’s most neoclassical piece is the Symphony in C. Jurjen Vis describes the work: “Mozartian themes are put through a bitonal wringer”. The Divertimento for piano four hands, although jazzier in character, likewise draws on Mozart – the piece was composed as a response to Smit’s continuous playing (with students) piano excerpts of Mozart Symphonies. 

In the Trio for clarinet, viola and piano, broadly developed and sensuous melodies tend to prevail. Composed in 1938, it is written for the instrumentation famously deployed in Mozart’s ‘Kegelstatt’ trio (K. 498). The work is in three movements: an opening Allegretto begins with a stately melody in octaves, then in dialogue with mysterious and chromatically rich, often fragmentary tunes that capriciously change in mood from one moment to the next. The central movement – ‘Lento’ – begins slow and solemn. Piano chords undergird long, winding melodies on the violin and clarinet, before the music develops in harmonic and textural complexity. The final ‘Allegro vivace’ sees pizzicato violin matched by staccato clarinet notes as the interplay between the instruments of the trio grows in intensity, each vying for the foreground before the piece reaches its dramatic conclusion.