BEET COMPLETE PIANO TRIOS

HO Trio Élégiaque VEN

QUINTESSENCE · QUINTESSENZ · QUINTESSENZA · QUINAESENCIA · QUINTESSÊNCIA · QUINTESSENCE · QUINTESSENZ · QUINTESSENZA · QUINAESENCIA · QUINTESSÊNCIA Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827 Complete Piano Trios

Piano Trio in G Op.1 No.2 Piano Trio in E flat Op.70 No.2 Triosatz in E flat Piano Trio in B flat Op.11 ‘Gassenhauer’ 1. I. Adagio – Allegro vivace 12’05 15. I. Poco sostenuto – 28. Allegretto 3’23 38. I. Allegro con brio 8’50 2. II. Largo con espressione 9’52 Allegro ma non troppo 10’20 39. II. Adagio 5’06 3. III. Scherzo: Allegro 3’42 16. II. Allegretto 4’57 Piano Trio in B flat Op.97 ‘Archduke’ 40. III. Tema: Pria ch’io l’impegno 4. IV. Finale: Presto 7’44 17. III. Allegretto ma non troppo 4’45 29. I. Allegro moderato 12’51 (Allegretto) con variazioni 6’41 18. IV. Finale: Allegro 7’47 30. II. Scherzo: Allegro 6’20 Piano Trio in D Op.70 No.1 ‘Ghost’ 31. III. Andante cantabile, Piano Trio in G Op.121a 5. I. Allegro vivace 10’27 Piano Trio in E flat Op.44 ma però con moto – Variations on Wenzen Müller’s song 6. II. Largo assai ed espressivo 11’04 19. 14 Variations on an original Poco più adagio 11’57 ‘Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu’ 7. III. Presto 8’20 theme: Tema (Andante) 32. IV. Allegro moderato 6’54 41. Introduzione (Adagio assai) – Tema con variazioni 12’43 (Allegretto) con variazioni 15’57 Piano Trio in E flat WoO38 Piano Trio in B flat WoO39 8. I. Allegro moderato 4’07 Piano Trio in E flat Op.1 No.1 33. Allegretto 6’08 Piano Trio in E flat Op.38 9. II. Scherzo: 20. I. Allegro 9’38 after the Septet Op.20 Allegro ma non troppo 4’24 21. II. Adagio cantabile 7’01 Piano Trio in E flat Op.63 after the 42. I. Adagio – Allegro con brio 7’19 10. III. Rondo: Allegretto 5’04 22. III. Scherzo: Allegro assai 4’51 String Quintet Op.4 43. II. Adagio cantabile 8’15 23. IV. Finale: Presto 7’24 34. I. Allegro con brio 8’04 44. III. Tempo di menuetto 3’00 Piano Trio in C minor Op.1 No.3 35. II. Andante 6’40 45. IV. Andante con variazioni 6’49 11. I. Allegro con brio 9’16 Piano Trio in D after Symphony No.2 36. III. Menuetto – Trio 6’12 46. V. Scherzo: Allegro molto 12. II. Andante cantabile con Op.36 37. IV. Finale: Presto 5’56 e vivace 3’17 variazioni 7’04 24. I. Adagio – 47. VI. Andante con moto alla 13. III. Menuetto: Quasi allegro – Allegro con brio 12’14 marcia – Presto 7’14 Trio 3’27 25. II. Larghetto quasi andante 10’55 14. IV. Finale: Prestissimo 7’43 26. III. Scherzo 3’41 27. IV. Allegro molto 6’34 Trio Élégiaque Laurent Le Flécher violin · Virginie Constant cello · François Dumont piano

Recording: 12–19 February & 20–23 July 2012, CIT Cork School of Music, Ireland Sound engineer: Frédéric Briant Artistic director: Olivier Légeret Cover: Shutterstock/Lamyai Artist photo by R. Marics p 2013 & © 2020 Brilliant Classics Expansion of the form and emancipation of the cello capacity in order to give the music a more ambitious form and a broader, richer The piano trio, i.e. a piece of music composed for piano, violin and cello, existed texture; one observes how he is slowly moving from an intimate chamber-music form long before Beethoven. If Bach’s sonatas for violin and harpsichord accompanied (ideally suited to the salon) towards a more symphonic vision of the piano trio, and by cello (as part of the continuo) cannot be considered ‘trios’, even if performed by this evolution is already in evidence in his first opus: if the Trios Op.1 No.1 and No.2 three instrumentalists, major composers of the Classical period showed a high level are rather Haydn-influenced, Trio Op.1 No.3 opens up a totally new direction for the of interest in this genre – Haydn, for example, composed 41 piano trios, and Mozart future. This latter work seems to announce, almost ten years in advance, Beethoven’s wrote seven in total. However, Beethoven is the composer who accorded the genre second (known as the ‘middle’) period – one characterised by a certain heroic’ style, greater dimensions and exploited the potential for creativity contained in the idea as symbolised by the Third Symphony which uses the same emblematic tonality of C of these three instruments put together. Before Beethoven, most trios were called minor – and was so new and unexpected that Haydn, most probably shocked, advised ‘Sonata for pianoforte with accompaniment of violin and cello ad libitum’ (François Beethoven not to publish it. As Beethoven considered this trio to be the best of the Couperin, 1788, or Daniel Steibelt, 1805), and even Mozart’s trios were published three, however, he came to the conclusion that Haydn was somehow jealous of his under that name, thus indicating the piano’s main role, with the violinist’s function originality and did not wish all of his creative talent to blossom. Yet one can easily being to underline or answer certain figurations in the right hand of the pianist, and understand why the Austrian was almost frightened by this highly innovative work: the cello part adopting a similar role with regard to his/her left hand (amplifying the it contains sharp, abrupt contrasts (from pianissimo to sudden fortissimo, with the bass, in other words, as per the continuo tradition). One could easily describe this set- invention of the ffp, more sudden than the usual fp), extreme tempi (‘Prestissimo’) up, without being pejorative, as ‘the pianist and his friends’ enjoying a nice musical and a tremendous amount of energy (‘con brio’) – a feeling of anguish, with some evening at home: it is the perfect example of ‘Hausmusik’, written for amateur angry outbursts, therefore seems to be haunting the entire piece. practice among music lovers. With the famous ‘Ghost’ Trio Op.70 No.1 Beethoven reaches a truly dramatic It was against this background that Beethoven started, and indeed it should come form, requiring high virtuosity and sense of risk from all three players. The mood of as no surprise that the first piano trios (Op.1) conform to the genre as described the music, too, is no longer playful or ‘salon’-like: it is instead imperious, impetuous, above, with a prominent piano part aimed at realising the performer’s virtuoso extremely intense and in the radiant tonality of D major (the same as the Violin capabilities. Even so, some special interventions (which are usually short but clearly Concerto Op.61). With the slow movement, most likely inspired by the unfinished audible, being placed at decisive moments in the score) are kept for the cello and opera Macbeth, Beethoven casts the listener into unexplored regions of human violin alone, demonstrating how already the two instruments are beginning to acquire hopelessness. an individuality of their own. Beethoven’s taste for polyphonic structuring soon The Trio Op.70 No.2, although composed in the same year (1808), seems to be enables him to free himself from the pattern used by Haydn and Mozart: it becomes announcing Beethoven’s third and final period. It is like a reconciliation, full of inner more and more rare, for example in the Trio Op.1 No.3, to find the traditional tenderness for humanity. Here the musical texture is one of a string quartet, the two doubling of the left-hand piano part by the cello. Indeed, with three instruments hands of the pianist taking the role of the two missing string instruments (as, for Beethoven seems to realise that he might as well use every one of them to their full example, in the opening of the first movement). Beethoven no longer writes ‘pianistic’ figures, but uses the keyboard in an entirely polyphonic way, and the density of the Op.20 and, more unexpectedly, the Second Symphony Op.36, both arranged for writing, the economy of means, the moving simplicity of the themes, the attraction piano trio. for some almost ‘abstract’ moments (as, for example, in the Allegretto): all are typical Probably in response to a request from his editor, who was very eager to sell traits of Beethoven’s third style. With the ‘Archduke’ Trio Op.97 the composer Beethoven’s music to as large a public as possible (the piano trio was a popular genre, invites us on a long journey in the form of a complete symphony for piano trio. Here ideal for amateur performance), Beethoven himself created these reductions – and he has totally broken down the classical frame, opening the way with this trio of what mastery in his choices of instrumentation, in the way he displays the different vast dimensions (the work is more than 40 minutes in duration) for later Romantic melodic and rhythmic elements! He makes the Septet and the Symphony sound like composers (Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky) who aspired complete new pieces, perfectly conceived for piano trio, and it is only regrettable that to reach a great architectural form in their own creations within the genre. With these works are rarely played nowadays, both musicians and concert organisers being the ‘Archduke’, which is rather radiant, warm-hearted music, Beethoven created a in general rather cautious about the idea of transcription – a concept which is not masterpiece, elevating the listener in the slow movement (containing variations on a very much in fashion because of the whole ‘suspicious authenticity’ debate with which fervent choral) to reaches that he would only touch on again in his latest piano works it is often equated. The same fate has struck the Trio Op.63 (after the Grand String (the variations in the second movement of the Piano Sonata Op.111, for example). Quintet Op.4), almost never played today – and yet what a charming piece of music!

Variations A unique cycle Besides the wonderful variations of the second movement of the ‘Archduke’ Trio and The Beethoven Piano Trios cycle is comparable to the 32 piano sonatas, the 17 the second movement of the Trio Op.1 No.3, Beethoven, who was very fond of this string quartets or the nine symphonies. It is a veritable journey through the life of form, wrote some music purely dedicated to it for piano trio. The Variations Op.44 Beethoven, through his search and his discoveries with regard to development of and, later, the ‘Kakadu’ Variations, are some rather virtuosic pieces (in all senses) style. Yet this cycle, in my opinion, is quite unique regarding the variety of forms which give each of the instruments a chance to shine. They also reveal Beethoven’s that he covers: what a contrast between the trios WoO 38 and 39 or the Allegretto very fine sense of humour, which contrasts with the very serious image usually Hess 48 (possibly composed when Beethoven was only 20 years old) and the majestic attached to this composer. ‘Archduke’ Trio. The piano trio offers Beethoven a unique range of expression, from The Trio Op.11 also contains a set of variations in the last movement, based intimate chamber music and refined dialogue between the three protagonists to on a theme by Joseph Weigl, a contemporary Viennese opera composer. They are concerto-like virtuosity, expanded form and symphonic power. composed in the same manner: humorous, spiritual and virtuosic. The piano trio became, after Beethoven, an extremely popular genre (for Romantic composers, such as Chopin, but also for Russian and French composers at the end of The piano trio, a genre open to transcriptions the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century), yet he continues to occupy Starting with the Trio Op.11 (which was originally written for clarinet, cello and a central position with regard to the genre’s history, having effectively transformed a piano), Beethoven often surprises us with some original transcriptions: the Septet charming salon piece into a grand concert piece that could convey the same emotions, the same energy and the same universal message as a symphony. This Complete Trio capacity to understand its originality (although as he could not have heard it prior to cycle is a story of Beethoven’s experience and his musical development, and invites publication, the story of his advising Beethoven not to publish it cannot be taken at us to meditate upon the evolution of his style and the novelty of his language in a face value). His misgivings proved groundless, however, as the edition – the cost of historical context: would the same people who heard the very classical Op.1 be able whose production Beethoven had taken the risk of underwriting himself – attracted a to understand, or even appreciate, the ‘Archduke’? The musicians and music lovers of large number of subscribers, headed by Prince Lichnowsky (to whom the works were the 21st century have the great privilege to gather, only in a couple of discs, a whole dedicated). life story… The Op.1 trios were not in fact the first works written by Beethoven for these © François Dumont instrumental forces. Three pieces, all in E flat major, survive from the early 1790s: the charming Allegretto Hess 48, WoO38 in three movements – all of which, unusually, Beethoven’s piano trios: an overview share the same key – and a set of variations, published in 1804 as Op.44, on a melody Following his arrival in Vienna in November 1792, Beethoven quickly established from Dittersdorf’s popular Singspiel Das rote Käppchen (The Little Red Hat), in himself as a virtuoso keyboard player with a particular talent for improvisation, which Beethoven employs a device he was to reuse in the Variations Op.35 (and but held back from publishing anything (other than a set of variations on ‘Se vuol again in the final movement of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony) of delaying the statement of ballare’ from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro) until the spring of 1795. However, he was the theme until several variations on it have been presented. Although he was not not idle during this period, producing three piano sonatas, a piano concerto, a string to follow up on the success of the Op.1 works with any more fully-fledged sonata- trio, some extended songs and a set of three trios for piano, violin and cello, and form trios for some time, Beethoven did produce some lighter works for these forces when he finally felt that the time was right to present himself to the Viennese musical over the next few years – including Trio Op.11 of 1797 (dedicated to Countess cognoscenti as a composer, it was the trios that he chose to fulfil this task. The piano von Thun), which takes its name ‘Gassenhauer’ (‘Popular Song’) from its third- trio format had been employed by Mozart and, more extensively, Haydn, who had by movement variations on a catchy tune from Wiegl’s comic opera L’amor marinaro 1794 written 38 (and was to produce seven more in the next few years), so Beethoven ossia Il corsaro (Love at Sea or the Corsair). This work is in fact a version of a trio may have made a bold decision to invite comparison between his original and for clarinet, piano and cello that was written for the clarinettist Joseph Bauer, with individual treatment of this popular form with that of the older masters. In Haydn’s the clarinet part transcribed more or less literally for the violin and retaining its key hands, the piano trio had essentially been a vehicle for the virtuoso pianist, supported of B flat (which was the most accommodating for the clarinet of the period). Here by a less prominent violin part with the cello relegated virtually to a continuo role; the Adagio includes a melody from the as yet unpublished early Piano Sonata Op.49 Beethoven not only placed all three instruments on a more equal and balanced No.2, which Beethoven was to recycle once again in the Septet Op.20. His often- footing, but made the format more symphonic in structure with the addition of a stated intention to replace the jaunty final movement with something more elevated fourth movement, and invested it with a greater degree of complexity and seriousness was, alas, never realised. than was traditionally expected. Haydn, although finding much to praise in the Op.1 The combination of piano, violin and cello was ideally suited to amateur groups, trios, apparently had reservations about the third of the set, doubting the public’s and there was a demand for works in this format for the domestic market – both original compositions and arrangements of pieces originally written for larger or Beethoven was prevented by his deafness from accurately judging the dynamics and more unconventional forces. In 1801–2 Beethoven made arrangements of the Septet audibility of his playing, that finally prompted the composer to abandon his career for piano, cello and clarinet (or alternatively violin) and dedicated the violin version as a public performer (at least in ensemble pieces). The following year he produced (Op.38) to his doctor Johann Schmidt, whom he was then consulting about his the charming Allegretto WoO39 for his ‘little friend’ Maxe Brentano, daughter of rapidly deteriorating hearing. Beethoven’s dedication makes it clear that the trio was his beloved Antonie (who was possibly the Beloved), and his hope that it would intended for performance in the Schmidt household (Schmidt played the violin and encourage her piano playing was realised eight years later when he was able to his daughter the piano), although since the piano part takes the lion’s share of the dedicate the Piano Sonata Op.109 to her. In 1816 he reworked (as Op.121a) a set of Septet’s more complex writing, Beethoven, with customary lack of tact, suggests that variations on ‘Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu’ (‘I am the tailor Kakadu’) from Müller’s Fräulein Schmidt’s technique might perhaps need to improve slightly. Of the other Singspiel Die Schwestern von Prague (The Sisters from Prague), dating originally arrangements of his works for piano trio, that of the Second Symphony (Op.36) was from the early 1800s and which he still considered to be ‘not bad’. He prefaced these certainly undertaken by Beethoven himself, but the version of the String Quintet Op.4 with a long introduction, taking up almost a third of the entire length of the piece published in 1806 as Op.63 was not, and the extent of his active involvement in or and which several times appears to be on the brink of leading into a statement of approval of the finished product is unknown. the theme before meandering off in another direction. Beethoven probably intended Beethoven’s decision to return to the formal piano trio format in 1808 was taken the contrast between the solemn mystery of the introductory material and the jaunty more because he identified a gap in the market for such works than to satisfy any facility of the theme when it eventually arrives to be amusing. creative urge to write them, and the prominent and expressive role given to the cello © David Moncur in the Op.70 trios was possibly a byproduct of the composition of the Cello Sonata Op.69 earlier in the year. The three-movement Op.70 No.1 in D major derives its name ‘Ghost’ from the atmospheric tremolandos and trills of the mysterious D minor Largo, which contains material that appears in sketches of the Witches scene from an unfinishedMacbeth opera. Op.70 No.2 in E flat, whose minuet-like Allegretto is full of Schubertian lyricism, marks a return to the four-movement format. In 1811 Beethoven completed his last major work for these instrumental forces, the Op.97 trio in B flat, known as the ‘Archduke’ from its dedication to his pupil and patron Rudolph. Unusually, the work’s Scherzo and Trio are placed before the Andante cantabile slow movement, whose theme-and-variation structure follows the usual pattern of an increasingly elaborate subdivision of the beat in each successive variation. After an extended coda, the music fades away before a jaunty figure leads straight into the Rondo finale. It was a disastrous performance of this piece, in which Trio Élégiaque was created by three laureates of major international compétitions: François Dumont, piano, Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels as well as the Chopin International Competition (Warsaw 2010); Virginie Constant, cello, Laureate of the Maria Canals Competition; and Laurent Le Flécher, violin, Laureate of ARD Munich. Several meetings with members of the Beaux Arts Trio, Amadeus and Alban Berg quartets helped the ensemble to fine-tune their approach towards classical and contemporary repertoire. Awards include First Prize for best interpretation of a contemporary work at the Weimar International Competition. As Laureate of the Theo Lieven Chair, the ensemble works with William G. Naboré at the Lugano Conservatory – here, as well as in Paris (Opéra Comique), Lyon, Rennes and the International Ljubljana Festival in Slovenia, they have performed the complete trios of Beethoven. Trio Élégiaque’s first recording, released under the label Triton, was dedicated to the creation of Trio Rombach by Dusapin and Quatuor pour la fin du temps by Olivier Messiaen, and the second (‘Russian’s Trio’), met with great acclaim and was awarded many prizes.