Beethoven: Archduke Trio / Kakadu Variations / Allegretto, Woo 39

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Piano Trios Vol. 4Piano Trio in B Flat Major, Op. 97 (The Archduke Trio)Kakadu Variations, Op. 121aAllegretto in B Flat Major, WoO 39Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770, the son of a singer in the musical establishment of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and grandson of the old music director. The latter's fame was stressed in the family by Beethoven's mother, whose husband could never reach the standards so set, leading the composer to take charge of the family after her death, a responsibility that he took all too seriously. In 1792 he settled in Vienna with the encouragement of the Archbishop of Cologne, his patron, an ecclesiastic whose choice of profession was dictated in part by his parentage, as son of the Empress, and in part by weakness in his legs, which had ruled out a military career. Here it was proposed that he take lessons from Haydn, a procedure from which he later claimed to have learned nothing. Lessons in counterpoint followed from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, with lessons in Italian word-setting from the Court Composer Antonio Salieri. Armed with introductions to the best families, Beethoven soon established himself in the imperial capital as a remarkable pianist and a composer of great originality. His career as a performer, however, was brought to an end by increasing deafness, the first evidence of which appeared at the turn of the century. This disability had the effect of developing already existing eccentricities of character, while allowing the continuing composition of music of very considerable originality, if occasionally too academic for contemporary critics, who took exception to the contrapuntal elements that assumed greater importance as time went on.Beethoven sketched the ideas for the greatest of his compositions for piano trio, the so-called Archduke Trio, in 1810 and wrote the work down between 3rd and 26th March of the following year. The Trio was dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, the composer's pupil, son of the former Emperor Leopold II and later Archbishop of Olomouc. The first public performance of the work was given on 11th April 1814 at the inn zum Römischen, by arrangement with the landlord and the violinist Schuppanzigh. It was at a rehearsal for this event that the composer Louis Spohr heard Beethoven play and was horrified. The piano was badly out of tune, and Beethoven's deafness led him to bang on the keys in loud passages till the strings jangled and to play so quietly in soft passages that notes were inaudible. Ignaz Moscheles, however, who was present at the public performance, commented only on the lack of clarity and precision, while admiring the music itself. The composer played the work again at a concert in the Prater given by Schuppanzigh a few days later, but his days as a pianist were coming to an end.The expansive first movement of the B flat Trio is introduced by the piano with the first subject, echoed by the violin. The elaboration of thi