Trio INK + 1: Schumann and Brahms

Trio INK – the piano trio of NACO’s dynamic concertmaster Yosuke Kawasaki – returns to Chamberfest with special guest violist Kyle Ambrust for an evening of chamber gems by the famous German love triangle: Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. Love is in the air as the programme opens with Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano. One might assume she wrote these works with her husband in mind; in fact, she did not. Clara dedicated the Romances to violinist Joseph Joachim, with whom she later toured the pieces.

To close the programme, we hear Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, a work he did write with Clara in mind: she was the pianist at its premiere. The quartet’s third movement is widely regarded as one of its highlights, with the cello theme in the Andante cantabile among the most beautiful of its era.

Nestled between these two works is Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor. While the precise nature of the relationship between Clara Schumann and Brahms has never been confirmed (and is perhaps beside the point) it is interesting to read Clara’s own words on Brahms’s genius: “It is not his youth that attracts me: not, perhaps, my flattered vanity. No, it is the fresh mind, the gloriously gifted nature, the noble heart, that I love in him.”

Tonight, then, we celebrate a love rooted in artistic admiration, skill, and creative brilliance. Whether bound by romantic or collegial ties, these three composers left behind extraordinary works that continue to captivate audiences today.