From Sandra

To B or not to B

In his book, Leokadiya Kashperova: Biography, ‘Memoirs’, and ‘Recollections of Anton Rubinstein’ , Graham Griffiths notes that Kashperova seemed to attach meaning to a sequence of 4 pitches (B-A-C-B), quoted from her song “Night Prayer”.  She used this sequence as a motif in her final piano trio, a piano trio that he describes as “a defiant and profoundly philosophical statement.” (p. 37)

Interestingly, before we read this passage, Alyssa began to notice that the note B seemed to have significant meaning in the intense lament of the cello in the third movement. Once we noticed it there, we began to notice it being used significantly in all the movements, in both instruments. For example, we noticed that every movement starts on a B (in the case of the last movement, it is the theme that starts on a B, after a short introduction.)

In this short post I would like to point out three of the moments of significance where it is very evident in the piano part.

Bars 8 – 11 of the first movement are repeated in the repeat after the first ending, and then again from bar 159- 162. In this short passage of 4 bars, the note B gets threaded through the piano part like a multi-octave pedal tone. It starts with beat 3 of the first bar in bass clef, then is handed off to beat 1 in the right, then beat 2 in the left, then beat 2 of the third bar in the left, beat 4 of the third bar in the right, then ending on beat three of bar 4.

A little more obvious is the penultimate chord of the third movement, which is too large to play all the notes at once and so has the top note (B) separated from the rest of the chord and played by the left hand. Kashperova does not make it apparent how she wants that chord managed. It would be easy to assume that it should be rolled. But even before we noticed the significance of the B, I felt that the top note of that chord was meant to stand alone, like a little gleam of light and hope, and so, copying the grace notes of the two preceding half note chords, I decided to play the bottom notes of the penultimate chord together as a ‘grace note’ to the top note, the B.   I have no way of knowing if this is what Kashperova wanted, but I feel like if she wanted it rolled, that would have been easy for her to indicate, and I’m pretty sure that B is supposed to stand out. It is meant to mean something.

And then there is the very obvious opening of the third movement as well. The piano starts with a forte ascending octave leap from B to B, like a call to arms. This introduces a subdued and somber theme of ‘trudging’ quarter notes that descend repetitively in each of the four opening bars to land on….you guessed it…. B.