Brahms Trio Op. 8 (Dicterow, Kreger, Sheppard)

Brahms Trio in B, Op. 8
Glenn Dicterow, James Kreger, Craig Sheppard

Tracklist:
1st movement, Allegro con brio
2nd movement: Scherzo: Allegro molto
3rd movement: Adagio
4th movement: Allegro

Glenn Dicterow, violin, James Kreger, 'cello, and Craig Sheppard, piano play Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8, by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), live performance


The 22-year-old Johannes Brahms started writing the B Major Trio in February 1854 after spending Christmas with his family in Hamburg. No sooner did he begin when he received word from Düsseldorf of Robert Schumann's attempted suicide. A close friend of the Schumann family, Brahms immediately travelled to their home, where he could help out in any way possible. Under these trying circumstances the Trio in B Major was completed. Brahms' first major published work, the Op. 8 Trio received its world premiere in New York City on November 17, 1855. The young composer, unable to afford the expensive trip to America, entrusted the piano part for the premiere to the young American pianist, William Mason, who had been studying in Germany. The 20-year-old German immigrant, Theodore Thomas, was the violinist. Thomas, a budding conductor, would soon be known as "the father of American orchestras." The eldest member of the trio, 'cellist Carl Bergmann, had just been named conductor of the New York Philharmonic the previous year. By 1890, with only seven more years to live, Brahms was considering retirement when his publisher offered him the opportunity to revise some of his earlier works. The Trio in B Major received an enormous revision leaving only the Scherzo intact from the original version. The work remains published in both the original and the 1890 version heard in this performance. In its revised form this masterpiece encompasses a huge arc in the output of Brahms' creative genius, from the unabashed, youthful passion of his early years to the complex emotions of his autumnal years, replete with intense anxiety, storm, even rage.