Review

Max Bruch
Eight Pieces Op.83:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer

2 trombones in tenor clef piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Piano score and duet parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 2 trombones
Secondary Genre: Chamber Music

Perhaps no modern arranger has added a greater amount of quality arrangements to our repertoire than Ralph Sauer. This moving arrangement of Max Bruch’s Eight Pieces, Opus 83, is an extensive addition to the repertory of trombone chamber music. Bruch composed his Eight Pieces for his son, Max Felix, and the work was given its premiere in 1909 in its original instrumentation of clarinet, viola, and piano. With these works, Max Bruch (1838-1920) returned to the composition of chamber music after a long hiatus of over forty years. Each of the Eight Pieces, though originally published separately, were subsequently published together as a collection of character pieces that include duos for violin, viola, cello, and clarinet with piano in a variety of instrumental pairings. Bruch himself did not advocate for the work to be performed as a complete cycle, he preferred rather that the performers select individual movements and their order, and thus assemble a customized cycle for performances.

Sauer retains the original key centers throughout the collection and they are ordered as follows: 1. Andante (a minor); 2. Allegro con moto (b minor); 3. Andante con moto (c# minor); 4. Allegro agitato (d minor); 5. Romanian melody (f minor); 6. Night Song, Andante con moto (g minor); 7. Allegro vivace (B Major); 8. Moderato (e-flat minor). Note that all the character pieces retain a named minor key save the seventh in the set which is scored in B Major, despite this, there is a wide variety of musical expression, textures, and key centers visited throughout the collection. For example, though the first piece begins in a somber and reflective A minor, the work shifts to the parallel major mode and concludes in a tender and touching A major. Though the collection is generally set in slower and free-flowing tempi, Nos. 2, 4, and 7 are faster with tempi respectively marked as Allegro con moto, Allegro Agitato, and Allegro Vivace. These faster tempi present some significant technical challenges, particularly with the ornamentation in No. 4 and the rapid arpeggiation in the scherzo-like No. 7.

The formidable trombone parts in this arrangement are set throughout in tenor clef. The tessitura is generally quite high and endurance would be a prohibitive factor in programming the complete collection in one performance and bolsters the argument for selectively presenting individual pieces or a shorter cycle consisting of two to three of these movements in one set. In Trombone 1 b-flat1 and c2 are commonplace and the work occasionally ascends to d2 and e-flat2 and descends only as low as an A-flat. Trombone 2 has a more forgiving range though it also ascends to d-flat2 and descends to an F.

Ralph Sauer, the long-tenured Principal Trombone of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1974-2006 whose many contributions to the art form as a performer are matched by his contributions as an arranger and educator, touchingly dedicates these Eight Pieces to the memory of Dietrich Emory Sauer (1971-2022).