MU S IC.
Wessel and Stapleton's series of Modern Pianoforte Trios, No. 49. Second Grand Trio Concertante for Pianoforte, Violas, and Violoncello, composed by Louis Suomi, Op. 123.
THE new and highly-improved mode of publication adopted in these Trios, has enabled us to peruse the one before us with minute attention and great pleasure. The improvement consists in printing the stringed- instrument parts in a score of small notes above the pianoforte part; by which process, the performer avoids the necessity of counting many successive bars' rest, as well as of frequent trials previous to perform- ance to arrive at a right understanding of the whole ; while a picture is placed before the young composer and student, which exhibits with all desirable candour the mysteries of effect in a certain occult and difficult branch of composition. Hitherto the writers of Pianoforte Trios, from HUMMEL to MENDEL!). SOHN, have been chiefly pianists ; who have shown a manifest leaning towards their own instrument in the structure of their compositions, and have drawn upon the violin and violoncello only for subsidiary interest, and to increase the attractions of their favourite part. This form of trio, received by prescription and adopted by tacit consent as the true one, has probably received its bias from the disproportion existing be. tween the number of good pianoforte-players and good violin and vio- loncello players. But times are altered: mechanical excellence has long been on the advance—the mastery of concerto passages is no unaccus- tomed feat to the fingers of amateurs, and drawing-room performances are not uncommon that in a public concert would be rewarded by acclamations. It is fit that composition too should obey the general law of progression, and adapt itself to the spirit of the times. In the present Trio in F, SPOHR has contemplated the union of three thorough musicians and masters of their instrument. The solos are such that they will admit of no subterfuge or makeshift, (not as of old many of us were wont to limp through HUMMEL'S Trios, with a bad bass): on the contrary, here every note is obligato, an integral and important part in the harmony ; and what there are of difficult succes- sions of notes and passages may well occupy those who have toiled over difficulties till they can play with them and make them subserve to beauty and effect. While the violin and bass players are greatly brought out in this Trio, there is absolutely nothing in it of what the Germans call the galanterie or exhibition-passage. Every decorative or florid phrase has a necessary connexion with the subject ; out of which it springs naturally, and is not inconsistent with a certain severity of counterpoint and fixity of purpose in the composition. But we must speak more particularly of the work. The first move- ment, an Allegro moderato in F 1, exhibits in the opening phrase of its subject a striking peculiarity of SPOHR'S harmony,—namely, a nice and delicate disposition of the parts, which in the boldest and most chromatic progression avoids all hardness or offence to the ear. The energetic passage of contrary motion in descending thirds and ascend- ing sixths, to which we have alluded, would present a gratifying com- bination if reduced to the test of the greatest slowness in performance. Throughout this movement, the motion of the piano part is usually in triplets, now and then breaking into groups of semiquavers of a singu- lar and spirited accentuation. If there is therefore little brilliancy in it, still there is a subject sternly and scientifically worked. And as it regards the dispersion of the harmonies in numerous and beautifully- constructed pedal points, and in various sequences and effects, it is long since we have seen any study in combination so interesting. The Larghetto, in D flat „1, exhibits the fourth string of the violoncello in combination with the high and middle notes of the piano. Although SPOKR.S manner is strongly marked in the theme and its harmonizing, yet the impassioned phrases of the bass which occur on the first cadence of the piano confer on the whole an air of dignity and novelty. In the second page of this slow movement, there is a very rich effect : the subject enters on the fourth string of the violin, the bass is sus- tained on the lowest string of the violoncello, while the pianist has both hands in the treble with chords and octaves piano. If it may be per- mitted us to bandy a technical question with a master, we would ask why SPOHR, in pursuing modulation in a remote key, which involves him in a profusion of double flats, does not, in imitation of Hallam and other classical writers for the piano, at once change the signature, and save even good readers from a world of embarrassment? In com- posing for stringed instruments, there may be valid objections to such a plan ; but on the piano there can be none to counterbalance the advan- tage derived by the performer.
The Scherzo, in C minor, is of most ingenious construction ; mostly in a five-part harmony, the stringed instruments dispersed above, be- low, and in the middle of the pi .noforte part, with endless variety in the combination and effects. The Trio in A flat, which succeeds, is capri- cious but more in the ordinary manner of the master.
The last movement, in F minor, (Vivace common time.) is the finest thing of the whole. It is on one of those enthusiastic subjects which transport the soul of the musician and to which fugue' canon, imitation, science, melody, and grace, lend ;heir kindliest aid. There is nothing which smells of the lamp here, but the whole proceeds with the fervour and energy of genius kindling with a happy theme and tracing it in all its bearings with the warmth that genius alone knows. Such music as this brings BEETHOVEN and MOZART to recollection. In recommending to the notice of artists and amateurs a work so interesting as the present, we would merely observe, that those pianists who may be inclined to measure its difficulty of execution by SPORE'S Pianoforte Quintet will be mistaken. That, indeed, requires the attack of a DULCKEN ; but this may be accomplished by the tasteful player with moderate application.
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