RENCONTRES INÉDITES V

Overshadowed in Beethoven’s output by the String Quartets, Beethoven’s three String Trios nevertheless represented for the 28-year-old composer one of the works of which he was most proud. Of these, the first Trio in G major is undoubtedly the most successful, developing the symphonic dimension of this formation as never before in the history of the string trio, without forgetting the virtuoso dimension that the freedoms of chamber music can offer. 

The young Brahms, also 28, must have remembered this when he set to work on his second Quartet for Piano and Strings. The man who was sometimes affectionately called the ‘little Beethoven’, while retaining the art of sonata form inherited from his elder, developed the keyboard part in an even more dramatic way, from the muscular exuberance of the Scherzo to the gypsy colours of the Finale. The work also owes a great deal to Schubert, right from the opening bars: a simple triplet motif in the piano, swinging between major and minor, soon gives the entire movement its driving force. Mao Fujita, who has been praised for years for his elegant phrasing, is an outstanding interpreter of this music, while we look forward to hearing the powerful sounds of Leonidas Kavakos, Antoine Tamestit and Gautier Capuçon embodying the second face of one of the most fascinating composers of Romantic Germany.