Anton Arensky, piano trio

 
Anton Arensky, Russian composer, conductor, and pianist born in Novgorod, Russia, in 1861, was the son of amateur musicians. Perhaps they saw in him the realization of the professional future that had been denied to them because as soon as the child Anton showed some musical aptitudes, the family moved to St. Petersburg so that the offspring could continue his studies in the Conservatory of the city. They were not wrong, because after graduating with a gold medal in 1882, Anton Arensky was hired by the Moscow State Conservatory, joining the teaching staff as its youngest member.

A miniaturist
Despite this promising start, Arensky never managed to enter the major leagues of Russian musical writing as a composer, as his pupils Scriabin and Rachmaninoff would. His style, miniaturist, unfolded better on the small scale, because in the larger-scale compositions he was indebted, first, to Rimski-Korsakov, and then to Tchaikovsky, although without reaching their genius. In his early forties, he opted for the performer's variant and toured Russia as a successful pianist and conductor on extensive, hectic, and vital tours. His somewhat dissipated lifestyle led him to die of tuberculosis at the age of 44.

Anton Arensky (1861 - 1906)

The oblivion of eighty years
As Rimsky-Korsakov indelicately predicted at his funeral, Anton Arensky was soon to be forgotten. Indeed he was, for a long time. It is only since the eighties of the twentieth century that there has been a renewed interest in his work. Much of it has been recorded, and today it is not uncommon to attend the performance of some of his pieces on the stages of the world. Author of a piano concerto, a violin concerto, and two symphonies along with other minor works, his Piano Trio in D minor is today part of the standard chamber music repertoire.

Piano Trio in D minor, opus 32

Composed for piano, violin, and cello, the distinctly post-Romantic work was written in 1894 in memory of cellist Karl Davidov, a friend of the composer and director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory while Arensky was his pupil.

Movements:

00:00  Allegro moderato

12:30  Scherzo: Allegro molto

17:56  Elegia: Adagio

24:30  Finale: Allegro molto

The rendition is by the artists Gil Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano), and Rafael Wallfisch (cello).

Beethoven, "Leonora" Overture

 
One of the rare occasions in which the concert halls around the world have been crowded with active military personnel took place in Vienna in 1805 on the occasion of the premiere of Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera. With the city occupied by Napoleonic troops, most of the audience was made up of officers and non-commissioned officers of the French army. Unperturbed, they attended the performance of the first version of the opera in the Theater an der Wien. By the way, the reception was pitiful.

Fidelio - a second version
Beethoven revised the work the following year. After rearranging some sections and reducing the original three acts to only two, it was performed again in March 1806 at the same theater, this time successfully. But the composer had begun to suspect that he was not receiving the full economic benefits that were due to him, and soon after decided to withdraw the work from the stage.

Third version
A new performance only took place in 1814, when, after the revision of some texts, it was featured at the Kärntnertor theater with the title "Fidelio" together with an overture of the same name. The work, initially inspired by the play "Leonora, ossia l'amore coniugale", by Jean N. Bouilli, tells the story of Leonora who, in her endeavor to rescue her husband – a political prisoner – from a 17th-century Spanish prison, goes to work there disguised as a man, as a certain Fidelio.

Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, Op. 72
Each of these three versions featured a different overture. The last one, as already mentioned, featured the Fidelio overture. The first included what is known today as Leonora No. 2 (composed No. 1 for a performance in Prague that never took place). It was the second version – that of 1806 – the one performed with the overture that has come down to us as Leonora No. 3, opus 72, and which has finally proved to be the favorite of audiences and conductors, with the exception of the French who, it is said, still prefer No. 2 as it would be the one Napoleon heard.

Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.