Johannes Brahms - Piano Trio No. 2 op. 87(Suk, Starker, Katchen)(1880-2)(with full score)

Mov.1: Allegro moderato 00:12
Mov.2: Andante con moto 09:44
Mov.3: Scherzo: Presto 18:41
Mov.4: Finale: Allegro giocoso 23:20

Vn. Josef Suk
Vc. Janos Starker
Pf. Julius Katchen

It seems to have taken Brahms over two years to complete the opus 87 trio, but the result evidently pleased him and he boasted of the work to his publisher, Simrock. Brahms' close friend Clara Schumann pronounced the piece "a splendid work" and "a great musical treat." A generously proportioned work in four movements, it features a second movement andante and third movement scherzo, an arrangement common in his symphonies but reversed in his other piano trios. He had first mentioned it and a companion work, an E flat trio, in a letter to a friend in the summer of 1880, but did not reveal it to Simrock until July 1882. By then, the E flat work had disappeared.
The piece opens thickly, with strange dissonances and a heavy feel, and seems to proceed sluggishly. It is nonetheless dynamically, rhythmically, and chromatically challenging and gives the sense of being a major work, and the first movement ends with symphonic grandeur. The slow movement is similarly heavy of texture, and Brahms makes considerable use of double-stopping as a way of making the two stringed instruments sound like four or even more. The scherzo, a four-minute presto, is begun and ended by a fluttering figure which generates momentum and contains a lyrical passage of some tenderness. The finale is the most adventuresome of the four movements and contains puzzling transitions and modulations which resolve to produce powerful effects. The final dénouement of the work is positively huge, proving that, in the hands of Brahms, even the tiny piano trio can be a large and imposing work. His boasts of the piece would seem to have been true.

[aramkhachaturian]

The fourth movement is good, kinda reminds me of the Simpsons theme but very vaguely.

[extrasalt]

Back in 1986, shortly after combat in the Gulf of Sirta, while on an aircraft carrier, I wrote a short story in which the narrator, during alive performance of this work, experiences a flash of inspiration during the instant between the first and second variation. The story is 'The Klein Bottle.' My favorite recording of this work is one which I have loved since 1976: Szeryng, Rubinstein, and Fournier. Hoomeyow!!

[philippecirse]

Johannes est le brillant reflet d'une époque, c'est un astéroïde fantôme qui revient jeter son dévolu sur l'art sonore. Une onde prodigieuse chargée de paradoxes d'où s'échappent l'obscurantisme la féérie et l'irrationnel, facteurs hypnotiques défiant les âmes vulnérables en quête d'absolu. Son architecture musicale est un court tunnel qui mène à la lumière 🤠

[eamongriffith]

Katchen has to be one of the best pianists for Brahms

[GarGri]

Richard Church in the second part of his autobiography (The Golden Sovereign) describes hearing his brother play this at a friend’s house. He sight read the piano music and their friends played the string instruments. In his book the author states he only heard the once in1910 and here we are in 2023 being able to call it up at will

[calebhu]

14:05 Inspired by Schubert's Unfinished?

[IzabelaZuzannaKuraszkiewicz]

Horses didn't appear on the planet because humans wanted their hair for musical instruments.All animals are here with us, not for us.

[pg]

too slow. The second mvt. is so beautiful when played allegro