Beethoven: Piano Trios 'ghost' And 'archduke'

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Piano Trio in B Flat Major, Op. 97 (The Archduke Trio) Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No.1 (The Ghost Trio)Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770, the son of a singer in themusical establishment of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and grandson of the old musicdirector, whose fame was stressed in the family by Beethoven's mother, whose husband couldnever reach the standards so set. In 1792 he settled in Vienna with the encouragement ofthe Archbishop of Cologne, his patron, an ecclesiastic whose choice of profession wasdictated in part by his parentage, as son of the Empress, and in part by weakness in hislegs which ruled out a military career. Armed with introductions to the best families,Beethoven soon established himself in the capital as a remarkable pianist and a composerof startling originality. His career as a performer, however, was brought to an end byincreasing deafness, the first evidence of which appear at the turn of the century. Beethoven sketched the ideas for his so-called Archduke Trio in1810 and wrote the work down between 3rd and 26th March of the following year. The Triowas dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, the composer's pupil, son of the former Emperor LeopoldII, and later Archbishop of Olomouc. The first public performance of the work was given on11th April 1814 at the inn zum Romischen, by arrangement with the landlord and theviolinist Schuppanzigh. It was at a rehearsal for this event that the composer Louis Spohrheard Beethoven play and was horrified. The piano was badly out of tune, and Beethoven'sdeafness led him to bang on the keys in loud passages till the strings jangled and to playso quietly in soft passages that notes were inaudible. Ignaz Moscheles, however, who waspresent 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 thePrater given by Schuppanzigh a few days later, but his days as a pianist were coming to anend.The expansive first movement of the B flat Trio is introducedby the piano with the first subject, echoed by the violin. The elaboration of this themeleads to a second subject in the unexpected key of G major, again introduced by the piano.This material is developed at the heart of the movement. This is followed by a Scherzo,introduced by the cello with an ascending theme to which the violin adds a descendingphrase before giving the expected fugal answer. The cello starts the Trio and there is afurther repetition of the Scherzo and Trio before the Scherzo re-appears yet again,leading to a coda.The slow movement, one of same length, is in the form of atheme in D major and four variations, following a traditional practice in a use ofincreasingly rapid notes to elaborate the material in the first three, while the fourthleads without a break to the final rondo, restoring the original key. A feature of thework, the height of Beethoven's achievement in the genre, is the