I am just enjoying this beautiful Piano Trio from 1861 which I never heard before:
I love especially movement 1 - 3 , in particular the slow 3rd movement (together with the score from the IMSPL site) - pretty much like Mendelssohn ...
Thanks for this, Gerd. This trio is not yet available in a commercial recording and is well played here, so it's good to hear. On the whole, as we get more examples of it, I suspect that Mayer's chamber music will have more staying power than her orchestral works and this is another attractive, if not very individual, example of it.
Interesting. I see that 5 of her piano trios have been commercially recorded; this might be the only one not (there's what looks like an error in the Wikipedia listing, with the trio in "E minor" without opus number presumably referring to the "D minor" trio that's been recorded and uploaded to IMSLP (ca.1845-56. Have fixed, unless someone who knows better reverts :) ) Or both might exist, in which case there are 7 trios and 2 haven't been recorded, or more, or...)
The trio in "E minor" without opus number listen in Wikipaedia is not an error, so doesn't refer to the "D minor" trio that's been recorded. It's Trio I in e-minor and was broadcast in 1993 in Südwestfunk played by the Clara Wieck-Trio. The movements are i Allegro, ii Adagio, iii Scherzo, Allegro vivace and iv Allegro.
In total there are 8 piano trios of which there are two versions of Trio II. The first is in D minor with the movements i Adagio-Allegro, ii Un poco adagio, iii Scherzo-Vivace with Trio andantino and iv Finale. The second version is the one recorded by the Hannover Trio on Genuin.
Apart from the two mentioned above the remaining unrecorded piano trio is one in B major with the movements: i Allegro con moto, ii Scherzo-Allegro, iii Un poco adagio and iv Allegro.
ah, thanks. so there are two in e, two in B....
ah. one in B minor, one in B-flat major uploaded to imslp (not B. if no one confuses "B-dur" and "B major" ever again it will still be too soon.) (The ms has "Finale. Allegro" not that it matters. Looking forward to hearing the trio sometime, anyway.)
Could we have a complete list, please?
I was just about to ask the same thing!
Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 12 (1861)
Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 13 (published 1862)
Piano Trio in E♭ Major (ca.1845-55?, premiered 17 June 1855)
Piano Trio in D Minor (ca.1855-6? 2 versions . Premiered March 1856 or so)
Piano Trio in E Minor (ca.1855-61)
Piano Trio in A Minor (ca.1855-61)
Piano Trio in B Minor, Op. 16 (ded. to Loewe, pub.1862)
Piano Trio in B♭ Major (ca.1855-70?)
all 8 are uploaded to imslp, now I look... except for 2 movements of the E minor trio from 1855-61. (The two E-minor trios are not the same work.)
Has there been any systematic attempt at numbering them? For example, on the recent Genuin recording, the Piano Trio in E flat is described as No.3, whereas the ones in D minor and A minor are unnumbered.
Also, what differences are there between the two versions of the D minor trio? Are they sufficiently different to be considered two separate works, for example, or is it a question of there being a different movt. in one, or are the differences more minimal?
QuoteWhat differences are there between the two versions of the D minor trio?
1) In the first movement the 'Adagio' introduction of the 1st version is missing in the second version.
2) In the second movement the 'Un poco adagio' of the first version has become 'Adagio' but otherewise is identical.
3) In the third movement the 'Scherzo - Vivace' of the first version has become 'Scherzo - Allegro vivace'
The middle of the movement appears to be new in the second version with the 'Minuetto - Andantino' of the first version changing to a 'Trio' in the second version with different notation.
The return of the 'Scherzo' is similar in both versions.
4) The fourth movement is different in the second version.
QuoteHas there been any systematic attempt at numbering them?
Almut Runge-Woll made no attempt to number Emilie Mayer's compositions. Two main reasons are likely:
1 Emile Mayer kept no catalogue of her works.
2 Emile Mayer didn't date her manuscripts.
Opus numbers were given by pubishers. Opp 12, 13 & 16 were published by Challier & Co., Berlin.
Just as well they've all got different key signatures - unless the one(?) in D minor is actually counted as two works!
Except for the 2 in E minor :)
Oops - thanks, Eric.
There is actually quite a list of compositions that Mayer re-worked. I have been looking into her chamber music some more lately and here is the list (as yet incomplete; there may be more examples).
- string quartet in e-minor (there his a thread here that I started about years ago).
- string quintet in d-minor (there is a thread on that one too).
- The d-minor piano trio.
- The violin sonata in F op. 17 is a reworked version of the "duo" for cello and piano, also in F (quite a bit earlier than op. 17 I think).
- Finally I just recently found this: Typesetting the cello sonata in B flat Major I encountered very early in the first movement a passage that is exactly identical to a passage from the from movement 1 of the cello sonata in A* (of which I published a typeset on IMSLP). Looking at the two movements I found that they are related and that the A-Major version is almost certainly the second, reworked one. I don't know yet if the other three movements are also related or not.
In all the cases I looked at (in detail, since I typeset the scores) the reworking is a thorough overhaul, generally making the piece more concise, the themes more characteristic and the works more mature.
I also typeset two violin sonatas in c and D (never published in her lifetime). The autograph of the c-minor sonata is crammed full with often hard to read pencil corrections, most of them very hard to read and to interpret. I typeset the ink version of the sonata (which in my eyes is plenty good) but Mayer appears to have a revised version in mind there too.
As to dating the autographs: Mayer's handwriting appears to change over the course of her career and an expert could probably date many autographs by that more accurately than Runge-Woll did.
* There is a recording on youtube (HIP unfortunately--though I feel that the piano that is used is probably superior (in the many left hand fast passages) to a modern piano but the cellist has all the choppy, phrase destroying technique that one associates with HIP).
No possibility of using paper-type-dating as they have with some Classical composer's autographs (based on available paper and known purchases) is there?
I know nothing about that sort of forensics but it might certainly be worth a try. This sort of science--requiring a laboratory I suppose--may well cost more money than anybody would want to spend on a "minor" composer. We'll probably have to live without such an investigation.