Kegelstatt Trio

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Kegelstatt Trio
Piano trio by W. A. Mozart
First page of the autograph – viola and clarinet
KeyE♭ major
CatalogueK. 498
Composed5 August 1786 (1786-08-05): Vienna
DedicationFranziska von Jacquin
Published1788 (1788): Vienna
Movementsthree
Scoring
  • clarinet
  • viola
  • piano

The Kegelstatt Trio, K. 498, is a piano trio for clarinet, viola and piano in E-flat major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

History

Mozart wrote the

Karoline Pichler, the work was dedicated to another student of Mozart's, Franziska von Jacquin; Mozart and the von Jacquin family – father Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and his youngest son Gottfried – were quite close friends.[3] They performed house concerts together, where Nikolaus played the flute and Franziska the piano.[4] In a letter to Gottfried from 15 January 1787, Mozart praises Franziska's studiousness and diligence.[4] Mozart dedicated a number of works to the von Jacquin family. One year later, Mozart wrote two Lieder, "Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte" (K. 520) and "Das Traumbild
" (K. 530) explicitly for Gottfried von Jacquin to use under his own name.

The German word Kegelstatt means "a place where

Ludwig von Köchel's 1862 thematic catalogue of Mozart's music.[4]

This

clarinet-viola-piano trio was first played in the von Jacquin's house; Anton Stadler played clarinet, Mozart the viola, and Franziska von Jacquin the piano.[4] The clarinet was still a relatively new instrument in Mozart's time, and this trio, along with his Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto (the latter two for basset clarinets
in A), helped increase the instrument's popularity.

The trio was published in 1788 by

clarinet-violin-piano trio, a violin-cello-piano trio, a clarinet-cello-piano trio, or a violin-viola-piano trio, as in that first publication by Artaria.[6]

No composer before Mozart had written for this combination of instruments.[4] In the 19th century Robert Schumann wrote Märchenerzählungen (Op. 132), Max Bruch in 1910 "Eight pieces for clarinet, viola, and piano" (Op. 83) and Carl Reinecke "Trio for piano, clarinet and viola" (Op. 246).

In March 1894 the manuscript came into the possession of the musicologist and composer Charles Théodore Malherbe when he bought it from Leo Sachs, a banker in Paris, who had bought it from Johann Anton André who bought it as part of a large purchase of manuscripts from Mozart's widow Constanze (the Mozart Nachlass) in 1841. In 1912 it was donated to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département de la Musique, Malherbe collection, Ms 222.[7]

Analysis

The manuscript notes the clarinet part as "Clarinetto in B" and uses the written pitch. The viola part uses the C-clef in the alto position. The labelling of the piano part shows a correction by Mozart where he started to write "Ce" (for "cembalo", the Italian word for the harpsichord) and then replaced it with "Piano forte". However, this part is labelled "Cembalo" for the second and third movements. The key signature of E♭ major in Mozart's late chamber music indicates close friendship.[8]

The trio consists of three movements:

The first movement is not the more traditional Allegro as an opening movement, but a more contemplative Andante. Following on from this, the second movement is of course not the traditional slow movement, but a moderate Menuetto, and the last movement, while lively, is not the standard Allegro. In short, the contrasts in tempo in this trio are not as stark as in most piano trios.

I. Andante

The Andante is written in the

gruppetto (turn) which appears 67 times.[10]

II. Menuetto

The second movement is written in 3
4 time and consists of 158 bars, almost all of which are repeated; a typical performance would last about six minutes. The key signature of this movement is B♭ major, the dominant key to E♭ from the first movement.

The opening menuetto of this movement consists of the exposition of a four-bar theme (bars 1–12, repeated), and its development (bars 13–41, also repeated). The piano's pounding bass line and sharp dynamic contrasts set the mood of this theme apart from any conventional light and frilly notions of a Minuet. During the development, the dialogue between the instruments becomes intensified, and Mozart shows his grasp of counterpoint without ever sounding academic or "learned".

The following trio opens with a chromatic four-note phrase, to which the viola responds with a run of lively triplets, accompanied by chromatic chords from the piano (bars 42–62, repeated). In the development of that theme, the four-note phrase and the lively triplets are then taken up by the piano, and clarinet and viola present some chromatically rising lines, before all three instruments start a concerto-like conversation where the 4-note phrase is only heard twice in the piano left hand (bars 63–94, repeated).

The final part of the trio starts with a variation of the trio's four-note phrase, which is briefly developed (bars 95–102) before returning to the brighter theme of the Menuetto whose treatment ends the movement without repeats.

III. Rondeaux: Allegretto

The last movement is written in the time signature of cut common time cut time (or alla breve, similar to 2
2)[11] and consists of 222 bars; a typical performance would last eight and a half minutes. The key signature, as is conventional, is the same as the opening movement, E-flat major. The musical format of this movement is a seven-part rondo, a rarity in Mozart's work; this seven-part structure also explains the title Rondeaux, the French plural form of Rondeau.

The structure is AB–AC–AD–A. Theme A is an eight-bar

vi) of F minor before ending in the relative key of C minor. Theme D – in A♭ major – is introduced in bar 116 by all three instruments almost in unison, and elaborately developed in bars 132–153 (repeated). In contrast to the previous development, this goes through the subdominant major scale (VI) of A-flat major.[12] With the playful coda of bars 191 to 222, Mozart concludes the composition, "that does not merely satisfy the listener, but leaves him enchanted!"[13]

References

  1. ^ Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, KV 498, Critical Report, p. 42 (in German)
  2. ^ Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, KV 498, score, p, 104
  3. ^ Kraus, Hedwig (January 1933). "W. A. Mozart und die Familie Jacquin". Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft. 15 (4): 155–168.
  4. ^
    ISSN 0898-5987
    .
  5. ^ VII/22/Abt. 2, p. XI, Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Plath, Rehm, 1966) (in German)
  6. ^ a b Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, KV 498, Critical Report, p. 43 (in German)
  7. ISBN 978-1-107-11671-9
    .
  8. OCLC 906084406
    .
  9. JSTOR 766166
    .
  10. YouTube, Benjamin Zander's interpretation master class
    where he argues that the first movement ought to be played much slower than it is almost always performed.
  11. ^ "Rondeaux", Neue Mozart-Ausgabe VIII/22/Abt. 2, p. 117
    "Rondeaux", autograph, p. 6r
  12. ISBN 978-0-19-514640-0
    .
  13. ^ Einstein 1962, p. 262.

External links

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