performed by:
Latica Honda-Rosenberg, violin
Božo Paradžik, double bass
Annalisa Orlando, piano
1. movement: Allegro con moto
Recorded live in Ljubljana, Križanke Church, July 26, 2022
The recital was organised and promoted by Ljubljana Festival 2022
About the piece: Piano Trio Opus 8 in B major is the only work by Brahms that exists in two different versions. Brahms composed this work 1853 when he was only 20 years old and the first version was printed 1854. Brahms revised the composition 35 years later, in 1889. That revision resulted in the most frequently performed version of this trio, the way how almost everyone knows it today.
Yet this, first version of the Trio Opus 8 is possibly one of the most important compositions in the history of music: it is thanks to this work that music world learned about the existence of Johannes Brahms the composer. Brahms was still completely unknown in age of 20 and he struggled with self-confidence. He even entertained thoughts of breaking off his music career. He was advised to travel to Düsseldorf to show his work to the world-famous composer Robert Schumann and ask for his opinion. The score of the Trio Opus 8 was one of the most important works the young Brahms presented to his idol. Schumann immediately understood that a young genius was standing next to him. He helped Brahms to get the attention of the music world and to have his first works published. Brahms was invited by Clara and Robert Schumann to stay as their guest. He stayed not less than two months and a real, true and deep life-long friendship among them begun then. Only six months later Schumann became seriously ill, maybe it would be too late for Brahms then. But he went to Schumanns with this version of the Trio Opus 8 just on time. The rest is the history.
Until just short ago, I didn't even know that the early version of this trio existed as a printed sheet music. The good playability of the cello part of this earliest version of the trio on the double bass caught the eye of my master's student Xenia Bömcke. She played this first movement in her final exam in the summer of 2022. That was crucial for the creation of this RU-vid video: it became necessary short-termed (in June 2022, just six weeks before this recital) to completely change the programme and to play one half of this recital with only violin, double bass and piano. This gave me the chance to finally play something together with wonderful violinist Latica Honda-Rosenberg. Since the original chamber music literature for this instrumentation is rather thin, inspired by Xenia's recent performance our choice fell on this great and rarely performed early composition by Brahms.
Sheet music for double bass (at the moment, only for the AEHF# tuning) is available in the online shop at www.bozoparadzik.com, for the time being exactly as in this video and only the first movement. The continuation of my project "Double Bass Goes Brahms" got in this piece another addition. In this stage, numerous "smaller" works by Brahms, technically easier to perform than the sonatas are being adapted. A continuation of the work on the early version of the trio Opus 8 and the playability of the remaining three movements on the double bass is being checked at the moment.
25 авг 2022
