GEOFFROY COUTEAU, NICOLAS BALDEYROU ∙ AMAURY COEYTAUX, ANTOINE DREYFUSS 19 As he later told his friend, the composer and conductor Albert Dietrich, he was inspired by the beauty of a specific place in the Black Forest: ‘“I was walking along one morning,” he said, “and as I came to this spot the sun shone out and with it this theme [of the work’s opening].”’ This incident took place in the summer of 1864, during his stay in Baden-Baden, where he was reunited with Clara Schumann, the love of his life, and her friends; a privileged creative environment, in which he completed the Piano Quintet op.34 and the String Sextet op.36 during these years. The Trio was finished in Vienna early in 1865, when Brahms had just learnt of his mother’s death. The influence of that event is felt in the slow movement, which is poignantly emotional, prayer-like, sombre and majestic. Perhaps also in the choice of the three instruments, all of which he had learnt to play as a child. He interweaves them closely, without one dominating, thus reinforcing a feeling of intimacy that is unique in nineteenth-century music, despite the apparent heterogeneity of the performing forces.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTAwOTQx