January 29, 2023
First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA
David Coucheron, violin; Zhenwei Shi, viola; Daniel Laufer, cello; Julie Coucheron, piano; Elizabeth Pridgen, piano.
Johannes BRAHMS: “Scherzo” from the F-A-E Sonata WAoO 2
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 1 No. 3
Antonín DVOŘÁK: Piano quartet in E♭ major, Op. 87
Mark Gresham | 1 FEB 2023
Sunday afternoon’s concert by the Georgian Chamber Players offered the gathered audience a potent program of reliable repertoire by Beethoven, Brahms, and Dvořák.
Violist Zhenwei Shi and pianist Julie Coucheron opened the show Johannes Brahms’ Scherzo from what’s known as the F-A-E Sonata, a four-movement work for violin and piano created as a collaborative effort by three composers: Robert Schumann, the young Johannes Brahms, and Schumann’s pupil Albert Dietrich.
Composed in Düsseldorf in October 1853, the sonata was Schumann’s idea: a gift and tribute to violinist Joseph Joachim. The sonata makes use of the notes “F-A-E” as a musical acronym for the German phrase “Frei aber einsam” (“free but lonely”), which Joachim had adopted as a personal motto.
However, the Scherzo third movement, which fell to Brahms to compose, is the only one that does not make use of that three-note motif. And it is arguably the best of the four movements.
Although Brahms wrote it for violin and piano, violist Thomas Riebl of the Royal Northern College of Music transcribed the Scherzo for viola and piano, which is how we heard the piece on Sunday.
Mr. Shi gave the Scherzo an emotionally energized, vigorous performance on his viola that projected boldly with a full-bodied tone into First Presbyterian Church’s music-friendly space. Ms. Coucheron did not have to hold back with her piano part. No timidness on the part of either. It proved a duly impressive beginning to the concert.
Zhenwei Shi and Julie Coucheron. (credit: Mark Gresham)
Next, Ms. Coucheron was joined by her brother, violinist David Coucheron, and cellist Daniel Laufer for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Trio in C minor, Op 1 No 3.
The set of three piano trios that comprises Beethoven’s Op. 1 was not his first published music. However, the composer recognized them as substantial enough to give an opus number.
The first two of these piano trios are closer to the typical classical manner of the time. But the third, written in Beethoven’s most personally distinctive key of C minor, is a substantial departure, remaining “classical” but foreshadowing of the composer’s transformative compositional voice yet to some. It is his earliest true masterpiece and today remains one of his best-loved chamber works.
The musicians conveyed well the drama and enthusiasm of the young Beethoven in their adept performance.
Dvořák wrote his Piano Quartet No. 2 in E♭ major, Op. 87 (B. 162), in the summer of 1889, at the behest of his publisher, Fritz Simrock.
Performed by string players Coucheron, Shi, and Laufer with Elizabeth Pridgen as pianist, its powerful first movement launched with violin, viola, and cello in octaves, followed by a glimmering entrance by the piano that quickly turned more inward. The initial four notes played by the strings reappeared throughout the music, shifting in character between tragic and heroic.
The slow movement possessed much grace, beauty, and passion. The third movement came across as atypical for a scherzo, with the usual relationship of tempos reversed between the ländler-like scherzo and a more urgent trio section. The lively finale raced along with passionate abandon and ended exuberantly. ■
David Coucheron, Elizaeth Pridgen, Zhenwei Shi, and Daniel Laufer. (credit: Mark Gresham)
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Georgian Chamber Players: georgianchamberplayers.org
Read more by Mark Gresham.
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