Trio Arte - Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 11 - Piano Trio In D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 (2024) [Hi-Res]

Thirteen years separate Beethoven 's Op. 70 from his initial forays in the genre, the three Op. 1 trios of 1795. In the interval, Beethoven 's only work for piano trio, Op. 11 of 1798, actually began its life as a trio for clarinet, cello and piano. In order to boost sales, however, this light and cheerful work–whose three movements all end with a bit of surprise–was published for either clarinet or violin, the two parts being nearly identical.

The opening Allegro con brio bounds along, propelled by an active piano part that interacts playfully with the strings. A singing cello in its tenor register introduces the lyrical Adagio. When the tune passes to the violin, its companions supply interjections and imitations. The proceedings reach a magically hushed pianissimo in which short cello fragments are answered by gently flowing rivulets in the piano.

The finale, marked Allegretto , is a theme and variations on an immensely popular tune, "Pria ch'io l'impegno", from the 1797 comic opera L'amor marinaro (Love at Sea) by Joseph Weigl (1766-1846), a once famous and now forgotten composer. In the opera, Captain Libeccio, his servant Pasquale and Cisolfautt, a partially deaf music master rescued at sea by the Captain, sing a terzetto in which Cisolfautt (whose name consists of solfege syllables) declares : "Before I take on this magisterial task, I must have a snack." He then warns that, "You will know what I am all about if my stomach raises a high note by a sharp." Beethoven 's nine variations, dramatic in conception, cover a wide range of expression. And he surely intended that you laugh–or at least smile –at the downright comical ending in which, if you listen carefully, you will hear poor Cisolfautt's stomach rumbling.

Piano Trio Op. 70 No. 1, "Ghost"

The weighty central Largo assai ed espressivo , in D minor, unfolds stealthily. A threenote sotto voce unison motif in the strings and an ornamented turn in the piano sustain the entire movement. Extraordinary piano tremolos, now in the bass, now in the treble, now fortissimo, now pianissimo, accompany the relentless forward march of these initial motifs. A fleeting episode in D major offers a glimmer of light. But it is short-lived, and soon the music reaches a terrifying climax. A chromatic scale in the piano that plunges nearly five octaves recalls the unrepenting Don Giovanni 's descent into the flames of hell at the conclusion of Mozart's opera.

This spectral movement is flanked by two earthly appendages in D major. The first, an Allegro vivace e con brio, opens with a fiery unison motto followed immediately by a dolce theme. The desolate pianississimo unisons that end the exposition seem to fore shadow the mood of the Largo. A contrapuntally involved development requires two attempts to launch the recapitulation: only in the second does the movement's motto sound in the tonic. On the other side of the abyss is a Presto finale that some consider too lighthearted after the horror that is the Largo. But what of the comical drunken Porter's scene that immediately follows Macbeth's grizzly midnight murder of King Duncan? In this way, the finale's quirky chromatic scales and its off-kilter folksiness seem to offer just the right measure of dramatic relief.

Trío Arte:
Sergio Prieto, violin
Maria Iris Radrigán, piano
Edgar Fischer, cello

Digitally remastered