Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Opus 87
François Daudet: Piano
Florimond dal Zotto: Cello
Rachel Koblyakov: Violin
As time goes by, I have happily become reacquainted with one of my favorite summer musical treats in Dieulefit, namely the “Journées Musicales de Dieulefit” (Musical Days of Dieulefit), which the Chemins de Pierre association has been dutifully organizing for over two decades already. According to tradition, around Bastille Day, the festival’s tireless musical director and eminent pianist François Daudet invites some of his closest musician friends to take over the small Église Saint-Pierre for a couple of days of appealingly eclectic programming.
This year, the new ticketing system was still hopelessly old-fashioned (Only phone calls please) and not always efficient (My mom and I got inexplicably moved two rows up from our requested and confirmed seats), the chairs are as tightly packed as ever and there is of course no AC, but then again, the quality level is consistently high and the atmosphere always pleasantly informal, not to mention that we always end up bumping into friends, so it all works out at the end. And let’s face it, it is wonderful to be able to attend exciting cultural events right in town too, even when they start at the ungodly hour of 9:00 PM.
Last Friday evening, the Trio Arborescence, which includes François Daudet at the piano, Rachel Koblyakov at the violin and Florimond dal Zotto at the cello, started their unimpeachable classical music program with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Trio No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Opus 97, AKA the "Archduke Trio", which the man dedicated to Archduke Rudolph of Austria, the youngest of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II’s twelve children, who was a passionate pianist as well as a patron, a friend, and a composition student of Beethoven’s. Incidentally, during his relatively short life (He died at 43), he would be Beethoven’s dedicatee no fewer than 14 times, including for major works such as Missa Solemnis, the Hammerklavier and the Grosse Fugue.
The "Archduke Trio" stands out without a doubt as one of the many peaks of the composer’s extensive career. Displaying both good-natured humor and a solid dose of sweeping grandeur, it also enchants with its unabashed lyricism and challenges with its ambitious complexity, all while remaining readily accessible. When it is performed by a virtuosic ensemble such as the Trio Arborescence in such an acoustically blessed space as the Église Sant-Pierre, the result is simply extraordinary. And it certainly was last Friday.
After the original short pause that turned into an unscheduled longer intermission was over (In the end, the people who had rushed outside to get a breath of fresh air quickly realized that there was none to be found and got back in just as quickly), we all turned our undivided attention to Johannes Brahms’ sprawling, occasionally Hungarian-flavored Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Opus 87, in which, among other fun happenstances, the mischievous violin and cello repeatedly gang up while the cast-out piano carries on unperturbed.
Finding the perfect balance between formal structure and Romantic élan, the composition keeps all three instruments busy with technical and emotional feats in an ever-growing web of invention. So many themes, so little time! Clara Schumann was a fan, and even Brahms himself was uncharacteristically pleased with this piece, so it has been validated times and times over, including by the captivated audience last Friday night, after the three musicians had flawlessly delivered a thrilling performance of it.
After the trio had received a well-deserved ecstatic ovation, they came back with a very special gift in the achingly beautiful slow movement of the Piano Trio No. 2 by… Felix Mendelssohn, of all people. As I was listening to the delicate lullaby, I could not stop thinking that German composers will never cease to amaze me, and neither will French players.
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