Carl Maria von Weber (1776-1826)
Trio in G minor, for flute, cello, and piano (1818-19)
Carl Maria von Weber is best known as the founder of the German Romantic opera tradition, though he also wrote a significant amount of concert and chamber music. The G-minor Trio for flute, cello, and piano dates from 1818 and 1819, around the same time he was writing Der Freischütz. Despite being in a minor key, this is sunny music, filled with charm and lightness more than anything else.
Its first movement begins, though, in a relatively dark place, with long, singing lines from the cello and flute decorating a patter of eighth-note chord progressions in the piano. Weber didn’t write too much music for flute – the clarinet was his main focus in two concertos as well as a magnificent Clarinet Quintet – but throughout the first theme of this opening movement he took full advantage of the flute’s rich, warm, lower register.
The movement’s second theme is a complete contrast to the first. Now in a major key, it moves into the much brighter resonance of the upper range of both the flute and the piano. The cello is given a mostly subordinate, accompanimental role.
A short development section follows and then the recapitulation begins. But the recapitulation doesn’t start with the first theme of the movement; rather, what we hear is the movement’s second theme, now in G major. Before everything ends, though, Weber brings back the opening material, as the music expires softly.
The trio’s second movement is a scherzo, and it’s just about as goofy as we could want it to be. It begins with a terse motive in G minor, but before long a flowing, lilting tune emerges. This new melody starts in G major and – a few twists and turns not withstanding – mostly stays there until the movement’s last page, when it returns to G minor. It’s not quite as wild as some Schubert or Beethoven scherzos of the day, but, in its odd phrasings and generally unpredictable nature, is certainly cut from similar cloth.
Weber called the slow, third movement “Shepherd’s Lament,” though it’s not the most mournful music to bear such a title. In fact, this is the first movement of the trio to be cast entirely in a major key (B-flat major, to be exact). The melody, introduced by the flute, has a folk-like quality, recalling Haydn at several junctures. Weber essentially treats it as the basis for a set of variations that are punctuated, at the very end, by some strikingly dissonant interjections from the piano.
The finale comes across largely as a light-hearted romp, littered with fetching tunes and ample opportunities for the three instrumentalists to show off. Like the first movement, the last is cast in a sonata form and features plenty of imitative writing among the instruments, especially in the darkly entertaining development section. Even if the key signature suggests the minor mode, this movement is the musical equivalent of a sun shower, with bright beams of light in the end driving away the clouds and drying up any precipitation that may have fallen.
© Jonathan Blumhofer
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