Programme Notes for
The Joy of Music Festival 2026
15 October 2026
JONAS STARK, Piano
1st Prizewinner, Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2022
Robert Schumann’s Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of Dawn, Op.133) was one of his last piano works, composed in 1853 before a suicide attempt and terminal decline into insanity. It comprised five short pieces described by his wife Clara as “very original, hard to understand, and with a very strange tone”. Each is very different in character, the first chorale-like with its series of solemn chords, while the second’s contrapuntal nature almost disguises its tonal centre of D major. The central number, restless and syncopated, is the most technically challenging of the five. The tonal ambiguity of the fourth looks ahead to the music of the young Johannes Brahms, a recent introduction to the Schumann family. The final piece combines characteristics of the preceding movements, bringing the set to a satisfying close.
In a similar vein are Franz Schubert’s Six Moments Musicaux (D.780), which with his Impromptus are his most popular short piano pieces. Composed between 1823 and 1828, these have been compared with Beethoven’s Bagatelles, but are longer and more fleshed out. An air of intimacy occupies the No.1 in C major, combining song-like charm with rhetorical gestures. A chorale-like theme opens No.2 in A flat major, contrasted with a wistful second subject in F sharp minor.
No.3 in F minor is very well-known, published earlier as Air Russe (Russian Song), although its folksy tone might be more Hungarian in character. No.4 in C sharp minor is the longest piece, opening with a perpetual motion, followed by a contrasting rustic dance-like theme in D flat major. No.5 in F minor is the most vigorous and restless of the set, while the closing No.6 in A flat major has one of Schubert most sublime and long-breathed melodies, typical of his late style.
The piano trio (piano with violin and cello) as a genre was created by Joseph Haydn, experimented by Mozart but perfected by Beethoven, with his monumental “Archduke” Trio in B flat major (Op.97) the high point of his seven piano trios. Franz Schubert wrote two piano trios, both of “heavenly length”, rivaling Beethoven in scope and ambition. Both were composed in 1827, but the Piano Trio in B flat major (Op.99 / D.898) was published in 1836, eight years after his death.
In the same key as the “Archduke”, Schubert’s trio is lighter at heart and feel. Despite a resolute opening theme, Schubert’s soft centre is revealed by a lyrical second subject. Like much of Schubert’s chamber music, this intimate music was first heard at Schubertiades, private home performances by close friends and associates. Public recognition would come much later. The slow second movement takes the form of a barcarolle (a gondola song), characterised by a gently rocking piano accompaniment. Its melody is both tender and wistful, contrasted by a more lively central section.
The third movement’s Minuet is light-hearted, with staccato passages galore for all three instruments. Its Trio section is a gentle Ländler, Austrian country dance in three-quarter time, essentially a waltz. The finale’s Rondo is a very substantial movement in sonata form but the lightness continues. Schubert even introduces a polonaise-like rhythm but does not change the work’s complexion, which closes in ebullient spirits.
Programme notes by Chang Tou Liang