Beethoven / Wranitzky: Oboe Trios

Description

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Anton WRANITZKY(1761-1820)Music for Two Oboes and Cor AnglaisIn a Europe reeling from the French Revolution, Viennaoffered some degree of economic security for such aristocratic houses asLichnowsky, Lobkowitz, Kinsky, Waldstein, van Swieten, Esterhazy andRazumovsky. Following the death of Emperor Joseph II in 1790 and the reversalof many of his enlightened reforms by Franz I, Austria found itself plungedinto what one commentator has called the classic example of the police state,with an aristocracy that sought to preserve whatever was left of its status. Theeconomic pressures of the times, however, placed great strain on the nobility'sostentatious lifestyle. As a consequence the more luxurious forms of the artssuffered severe cutbacks in patronage and this led to the dismissal of manyprivate orchestras and opera companies. The situation was such that whenBeethoven arrived in Vienna in November 1792 to study with Haydn only a handfulof these private orchestras remained. Instead, the aristocracy employed chambergroups and instrumental soloists, some doubling as servants. Mozart had nowbecome Vienna's favourite composer, having been ignored while he worked so hardto make his name there. The Magic Flute had been performed at least sixty timesby the time Beethoven arrived. Haydn, too, was now famous after several decadesof Viennese neglect.It was in this environment that Beethoven found a ready-madeaudience for the chamber music, and particularly the wind chamber music, thathe produced in the period between 1792 and 1801, the Duet in G for Two Flutes(1792), Octet in E flat for pairs of Oboes, Clarinets, Horns and Bassoons(later Op. 103) originally composed without oboes in Bonn (1795), the Sextet inE flat for Clarinets, Horns and Bassoons, later Op. 71 (1796), the Quintet in Eflat for Piano and Wind, Op. 16 (1797), the Sextet in E flat for String Quartetand Two Horns, later Op. 81b (1797), the Serenade in D for Flute, Violin andViola, Op. 25 (1797), Trio in B flat for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 11(1798), Horn Sonata, Op. 17 (1800), Septet in E flat for Clarinet, Horn,Bassoon, Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass, Op. 20 (1800) and the present Trios forTwo Oboes and Cor Anglais, Op. 87 and WoO 28.Among the musicians in Vienna who would play a r??le inBeethoven's life were the oboists Johann Wenth (Wendt, Went), Georg Triebenseeand his son Josef, Fiala, Rosiniach, Czerwenka, Reuter and the brothers Teimer- Johann, Franz and Philipp. Gustav Nottebohm (1817-1882), scholar ofBeethoven's sketchbooks and thematic catalogue, surmises that Beethoven's oboetrios were inspired by a trio by Wenth performed at a concert of theTonk??nstler-Gesellschaft by the Teimer brothers on 23rd December 1793. Whatevermay have been the inspiration for Beethoven, the number of surviving trioscomposed by the oboists themselves and others for this combination of windinstruments testify to the popularity of the genre.It is difficult to date precisely