The Best of Three 

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

TRIO SEOUL

Jinjoo Cho, violin

Brannon Cho, cello

Kyu Yeon Kim, piano

The city of Seoul is a dynamic symbol of this trio’s cultural roots and artistic intensity. In their Linton debut, Trio Seoul will perform Arensky’s cornerstone piano trio as well as works that display Dvořák’s dramatic eloquence, embody a young and in-love Shostakovich, and introduce the eclectic music of Uzong Choe.

Program Notes

Dmitri Shostakovich  (1906 – 1975)
Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 8

The Op. 8 trio is one of Shostakovich’s lesser-known works, but is nonetheless a fascinating example of the composer’s early talents. Despite being only 17, Shostakovich had already studied at the Petrograd Conservatory for three years when he composed the trio. His inspiration came while convalescing at a sanatorium to overcome a bout of tuberculosis. While there, according to his sister Mariya, the young composer grew, got a suntan, and fell in love with Tatyana Gilvenko. Shostakovich dedicated his trio to Gilvenko under its original toile Poème but never published the work in his lifetime. The current version was assembled from multiple manuscript sources, with the final missing bars completed by composer Boris Tischenko.

Formally, the trio is a single movement, but it contains both recognizable Shostakovich hallmarks and the telltale signs of a student work. The form is somewhat rambling, and the overall tone mixes a Romantic spirit with Impressionistic chromaticism. The young composer’s influences can be heard throughout with hints of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Glazunov suffusing the work. Yet despite these shortcomings, hints of the composer Shostakovich would become peak through. Lyrical melodies are colored by acerbic harmonies, insistent rhythms drive to sudden contrasts in pace and energy, and spare textures give way to lush, romantic passages with powerful climaxes. The work is rough at times, but there is enough brilliantly unique music present that it is not surprising only two years later Shostakovich would pen his triumphant first symphony.

Anton Arensky  (1861 – 1906)
Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 32

Anton Arensky lived in the center of Russian Classical music both influentially and chronologically. A generation younger than Tchaikovsky and a generation older than Stravinsky, Arensky studied at the St. Petersburg conservatory under Rimsky-Korsakov and eventually became the professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow conservatory where his students included Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. While less well-known today than many of his contemporaries, Arensky carved out a successful career as a composer, pianist, and conductor. While his musical legacy comprises at least one successful opera, two symphonies, two concerti, choral and piano works, and several chamber music works, the D minor trio has stood the test of time as his most lasting work.

The trio opens with a grand sonata form in the tradition of late German Romanticism. As the opening movement closes with a striking adagio statement of the opening theme, the trio moves to an imaginative Scherzo whose trio plays out as an idealized kind of waltz. The slow Elegia, its somber mood enhanced by muted strings, follows ternary form with a varied return of the “A” section. The trio concludes with a tour de force finale that immediately dispels the mood with its exuberant polonaise-like main theme. The coda unifies the entire work, recalling the theme of the middle section of the Elegia and the first theme of the first movement in its adagio setting before the fast-paced conclusion.

Uzong Choe (1968 – ) 
Scattered Dreams

Scattered Dreams for Piano, Violin and Cello (2022) by South Korean composer Uzong Choe was commissioned by Trio Seoul for its debut performance at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Korea. The initial concept of the piece started with a rather ambiguous question, ‘do melodies carry the hopes and dreams of the time they were written/celebrated in? Where do these dreams go?’ 

The work is meant to be paired with the Arensky Trio No.1 in D minor, which was composed in the year 1894 – often considered the year that marks the beginning of the incremental colonial invasion of Korea by Japan. The musical themes incorporate popular tunes of Korea at the turn of the century, as the work reflects on the past golden age of the dying dynasty and leads the listeners of today to question the inevitable perishing nature of life.

Antonín Dvořák  (1841 – 1904)
Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65

Many regard the Op. 65 trio as a turning point for Dvořák as a composer. Uncharacteristically stormy and fraught with conflict, the work stands musically distinct from the bulk of the compositions that preceded it. While there is no real consensus on what led to this development of style, any number of factors could have contributed. At the time of the trio’s composition in 1883, Dvořák was working through the grief of losing recently losing his mother which likely influenced the emotional tumult of the work. In addition, Dvořák was also responding to ongoing calls from friends and colleagues to move beyond his single-minded focus on folk-oriented Slavic nationalism in his music to achieve a more cosmopolitan European style. This paired with his ongoing mentorship from Brahms help shed light on the trios distinctly German (or perhaps “Brahmsy”) tone. Finally, it should not be undervalued that Dvořák was 42 at the time the trio was composed. This work could be viewed as the natural evolution of compositional style as a dedicated musician continued to mature into his skills and master the process of translating influences into his own unique style. 

The opening Allegro is elegiac with its complexity of moods. Fleeting moments of shining triumph are soon swallowed by despair. The part-writing is dense and occasionally orchestral, the dynamic range huge, the gestures sweeping, and yet, by turns soft and shining as well. The Allegretto grazioso is the scherzo, a masterful construction like nearly all of Dvořák’s chamber dance movements. Written in 2/4 with heavy accents and strong cross-rhythms created by subdividing the pulse into both two’s and three’s, this is one of Dvořák’s many examples of the Furiant, a bold and fiery Bohemian dance with a pronounced Slavic character. 

The slow movement is the true heart of the trio as the wild, conflicted energies of the first two movements settle into an elegy of supreme grace and radiant affection. A soaring melody in the violin rises like a haunting swan song. This adagio is surely some kind of final goodbye in mood if not literally in a programmatic sense. The finale begins with a powerful return of energetic darkness, a combination of sonata and rondo forms with the rhythmic ferocity of the furiant and its thematic variation as a softer, swaying waltz. This ending holds a few surprises: a sudden recall of the first movement’s opening theme and a recasting of the rondo’s sharp refrain into yet another lovely variation recalling the sublime slow movement. As if the spell of the entire trio had somehow broken, the theme permutes one last time into a dashing flourish with a fresh vitality finally and cathartically restored.