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- John Harbison
String Trio (2013)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
Programme Note
Movement IV: Variations; Camerata Pacifica
Cmoposer note:
I was sixteen years old, in 1954, when I made my first attempt at writing a string trio. (I had been performing the Mozart Divertimento, K563.) After my first ten measures, I gave up, I understood I was not ready for this difficult medium.
Fifty years later I knew I was: String Trio (2013) takes up in spirit from my first attempt. I have long been aware of the practice of modeling a piece on an admired piece by an earlier composer, more prevalent in the classical period than recently. Two Beethoven responses to Mozart, his A major quartet opus 18 and his C minor piano concerto, have always been fascinating to me, but I never (consciously) tried it until this String Trio, which shadows the Mozart Divertimento, K 563 in ways both plain and hidden.
Mozart's piece hides under its title, but we are not fooled: it is one of his most ambitious and comprehensive pieces. It contains stretches of great learnedness and patches of casual geniality. It re-examines the "highest" symphonic structures and the "lowest" popular dances. Rather than mask the difficulty — the leanness of the texture — Mozart disdains orchestral effects; he writes few multiple stops, exults in the sufficiency of two or three voices. The players find their parts pleasurable, grateful, demanding and unforgiving. Virtuosity happens, it is never obligatory.
When I mentioned to some friends that I had written a string trio, they said "Does it have too many movements, like the Mozart?"
The String Trio was commissioned by a consortium of Camerata Pacifica audience members: Peter & Linda Beuret, Bob Klein & Lynne Cantlay (in memory of Michael Benjamin Klein), Roger & Nancy Davidson, Stanley & Judith Farrar, Ann Hoagland, (in memory of her husband Stephen C. Hoagland), John & Susan Keats, Jordan & Sandra Laby, and Alejandro Panchart (in memory of Milton Babbitt).
— John Harbison, November 2016