Movement for Piano Quartet

While it goes with saying that Gustav Mahler was one of the great symphonists of the 20th century, he was not a prolific composer of chamber music. His avoidance of chamber music should not be considered a failure, however. Just as we would be wrong to blame J. S. Bach for not composing Italian opera, we can see in Mahler’s decision a reflection of his aesthetics and environment. He was engaged as conductor of opera and symphonic music in the premier venue in Vienna, a position that left little time for experimenting with chamber music. His tastes in composition clearly ran toward the grand, which was available to him through the largest ensembles. That was not always the case, of course, since the youthful Mahler made several attempts in the realm of chamber music.

It is hard to say for certain why Mahler began to compose a piano quartet during the late 1870s. He was barely 16 years old when he started working. Was it simply youthful ambition? a desire to emulate Schumann or Brahms, perhaps? a commission or student’s exercise? Whatever the explanation, we are left in the end with only a fragment: a single movement in A minor. (A second movement survives in a sketch of only 24 measures.) Still, this tidbit remains provocative and informative. We are led to wonder, I think, where Mahler might have gone with the ideas raised here. We are not lacking for interest or variety, but all is coolly restrained here. As one commentator has put it, the quartet’s best features are its “attenuated passion and muted tragedy.”

The piece opens with an echo of Schubert (think of the latter’s A-minor piano sonata), proceeds to an energetic section reminiscent of Schumann, and moves in and out of a cross-rhythmic texture often associated with Brahms. The movement avoids laborious elaborations of its thematic material; the strong connection Mahler achieves between first and second themes leads to a taut, lean development. Mahler’s counterpoint is not particularly inspired, yet there are moments which presage his later style: (1) a short retransition from the development to the recapitulation that uses muted strings on diminished harmonies for an ethereal effect; and (2) a cadenza for solo violin, that looks to the extended, folk-style solo melodies of his subsequent symphonies. Overall, the thematic obsession with a falling semitone leaves the listener in a “resignational” mood; perhaps Mahler likewise felt the tone too dark, too somber, to be followed up with additional movements?

(c) Jason Stell