Presents
Paul Pabst
Piano Trio in A Major
Paul Pabst (1854-1897) was born in the city of Königsberg, then part of the German kingdom of Prussia. He came from a well-known musical family. His father August Pabst was a composer, pianist and director of the Riga Conservatory in Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, and his uncle Louis Pabst founded the Melbourne Conservatory in Australia. After first studying with his father, he was sent to Vienna to study with Anton Door, he then moved to Weimar to study with Liszt. His father hired him to teach at the conservatory in Riga but shortly thereafter, at the behest of Nikolai Rubinstein, brother of Anton, he became a professor of piano at the Moscow Conservatory, eventually becoming its director after Rubinstein's death. He was an important teacher and among his many students were Alexander Goedicke, Nikolai Medtner, Alexander Goldenweisser and Georgi Konus.
His Piano Trio in A Major was composed in 1895 and was dedicated to the famous pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein who had died a few years before. The powerful, emotional and often dramatic opening movement to the trio, Allegro con brio, is full of mood, conveying a sense of restlessness. The playful second movement, marked Intermezzo, Menuet, is surprisingly modern sounding and has a salon like quality, with a lyrical, singing middle section. The third movement is marked Reverie elegiaque, the tempo molto cantabile. While one might expect from the title, something sad or perhaps melancholy, there is none of that. Instead we have what sounds like a lovers' duet between the violin and cello. The wayward sounding and exciting finale, Allegro moderato, begins with a great sense of movement and unrest. Eventually, this gives way to an upbeat and sunny episode. It is only at the end that Pabst attaches a short coda marked, Quasi marsche funebre. Were it not for the coda, one would never have guessed this was a tribute to a dead artist.
What is striking about this trio, besides its many original touches, is its outstanding part-writing for the strings. An excellent work, first rate, deserving concert performance. Unavailable for more than a century, we are pleased to bring it back and have added rehearsal numbers to the original.
Parts: $29.95
