related works
Variations : for piano and strings, 1981 / John Borstlap
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Piano and string orchestra
Scoring:
str pf-solo
Trio à cordes : for violin, viola and violoncello / Dick Kattenburg
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
String trio (violin, viola, cello)
Scoring:
vn vla vc
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
String trio (violin, viola, cello)
Scoring:
vl vla vc
Trio à cordes no. 2 : pour violon, alto et violoncelle, opus 912, 1996 / Jan van Dijk
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
String trio (violin, viola, cello)
Scoring:
vl vla vc
composition
Trio for strings : for violin, viola & violoncello, 1996 / John Borstlap
Other authors:
Borstlap, John
(Composer)
Contains:
Allegro
Molto adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Description:
Program note (English): In 1995 The Culture Company, a private enterprise in Amsterdam organizing chamber music concerts, asked John Borstlap to write a string trio for their project Sound of Romanticism, a chamber music series with concerts for different combinations. The Ludwig Trio premièred the piece in this context throughout the Netherlands in February 1997. The Trio for Strings is written in the classical tradition, referring to the musical style and structural means of the Viennese 'classics' Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, while incorporating elements from the 19th and 20th century. The result is a reinterpretation of a cultural tradition, which has almost expired in the last century. In the first movement, two opposing forces combine in a discourse where they try to 'overcome' each other: on one hand a centrifugal chromatic music which tries to dislodge the narrative, and a binding, harmonizing diatonic music on the other. At the end, this tension is exposed very clearly when the first theme,
played by the violin in a very remote key, is being 'bended' - called to order - by the other instruments in the main key of d minor. The short, slow second movement is a meditation upon two different lines: one upward, the other downward. From the beginning, a clear cadence (which in classicism is a sign of concluding a phrase), is avoided until the very end, where a cadence opens-up to the finale. The finale is in a free rondo-form where the material is continuously varied and returning in slightly different guises, building-up to an allegro which concludes the piece. Elegance and playfulness à la Haydn dominate this movement, fused with good humour and all the ornamental complexities inherent in the style. - JOHN BORSTLAP