Piano trio op.1.3 (Beethoven)

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The piano trio op.1.3 in C minor is the third of three piano trios that Ludwig van Beethoven published in 1795 under opus number 1. The other two are the Piano Trio op.1.1 in E flat major and the Piano Trio op.1.2 in G major.

Emergence

Before composing the Piano Trios op. 1, Beethoven had approached the genre of the piano trio by composing piano quartets - with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a model. Most of the Piano Trios op. 1 were written in 1793 and 1794. They are dedicated to Beethoven's patron and patron Karl Lichnowsky , who made it possible for the trios to be performed privately and who financed the first edition published by Artaria in 1795 . As part of the publication, the piano trios were given opus number 1, whereby Beethoven may have wanted to emphasize that he saw the piano trios as his first full-fledged compositions. According to musicologist Konrad Küster , this numbering could also go back to Prince Lichnowsky.

To the music

The C minor trio is considered the most important in the group of works in Opus 1.

This is due, on the one hand, to the increased dimensions of the trio's emotional impact towards symphonic standards, which is made clear by the fact that the weight that was previously reserved exclusively for the first movement is now distributed between the head and the final movement, with the finale not in the usual rondo , but, like the first movement, in the sonata form .

Alexander Ringer also noted "the thematic standardization of all four movements, which leaves almost nothing untouched in the C minor trio". Accordingly, all motifs are related to each other, which is noticeable down to the secondary voices and transitions.

Beethoven's Viennese teacher at the time, Joseph Haydn, expressed particular concerns about the C minor trio, because “he”, as Franz Gerhard Wegeler and Ferdinand Ries reported in their Beethoven biography, “did not believe that this trio would be so fast and would be easily understood and so favorably received by the public ”.

First movement: Allegro con brio

The opening motif consists of the notes c-es-c, which sound in piano in unison in all instruments. The following motif, a broken sixth chord first on the dominant , then a semitone higher, appears in unison. With two fermatas , Beethoven achieves a metrical indeterminacy, so that it is initially unclear whether the introduction or the main theme, which in the repetition of the exposition turns out to be in two parts , is still to be heard . Only the second group of bars is clearly thematic. The first bar of the main theme sounds at the place for the recapitulation provided by the sonata form , but instead of the second bar there is a development in the sense of a development.

Second movement: Andante cantabile con variazioni

The second movement is in E flat major and contains five variations. In order to preserve the cantable framework of the Andante, the last of these variations does not have the usual virtuoso, but rather a restrained character.

In the opinion of the musicologist Helga Lühning , the movement gets its cantability from elements from vocal music that are used in the setting of Ottonari. Within the main theme, this is expressed through its characteristic key and phrasing. In addition, Lühning refers to the unstable alternation between full-beat and up-beat.

Third movement: Menuetto, quasi allegro

The third movement in C minor contains a trio middle section in C major.

Fourth movement: Finale: Prestissimo

The connection with the first movement and thus the up to then unusual counterbalance of the finale is expressed in its similar structure, in the c-es-c motif of the main theme and in the second main theme section, which shows a relationship with the corresponding section of the first movement. The beginning of the implementation onset page topic forms with its contrast to the previous melody, main theme of the moving. As in the first movement, the recapitulation in the finale is shortened; in the case of the finale the first group of bars is omitted. The B minor that begins at the beginning of the coda changes to C major, which musicologist Paul Bekker called “peace harmonies” and “the floating of the liberated soul”.

effect

Joseph Haydn's concerns that the trios could overwhelm the Viennese audience turned out to be unfounded. With the sales of the trios, Beethoven earned over 700 guilders .

The Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung saw in the trios both “the joyful youth of the master” and his “later, deep seriousness and tender intimacy” and noted “the models of Mozart's piano quartets”, nevertheless also found “B.'s peculiarity and independence unmistakable”.

Among the three piano trios of Opus 1, Beethoven himself valued the C minor trio the highest - which is why his reaction to Haydn's criticism was also very restrained - and later reworked it into the String Quintet Op. 104 , on whose surviving copy he explained his motivation noted for the arrangement: “Edited trio to a 3-part quintet by Mr.: Gutwillen u. From the appearance of 5 votes to real 5 votes brought to light, as well as from the greatest miserability raised to some respect by Hr: Benevolence 1817 on August 14th. Nb: the original 3-part quintet score was offered to the lower gods as a solemn burnt offering. "

literature

  • Harenberg cultural guide chamber music. Brockhaus, Mannheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-411-07093-0 .
  • Piano trios. In: Beethoven manual. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02153-3 . Pp. 483-493.
  • Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life. Metzler, 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02231-8 . P. 73f.
  • Wolfgang Osthoff : The slow introductions to Beethoven's piano trios (op.1 no.2, op.121, op.70 no.2) . In: Rudolf Bockholdt, Petra Weber-Bockholdt (eds.): Beethoven's piano trios. Symposium Munich 1990. Munich 1992, pp. 119–129.
  • Alexander L. Ringer: 3 piano trios in E flat major, G major and C minor op.1 (together with the string quintet in C minor op.104) . In: Carl Dahlhaus , Albrecht Riethmüller , Alexander L. Ringer (eds.): Beethoven - interpretations of his works. 1994, Vol. 1, pp. 1-20.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Küster : Beethoven . Stuttgart 1994
  2. ↑ Alexander L. Ringer: 3 piano trios in E flat major, G major and C minor op.1 (together with the string quintet in C minor op.104) . In: Carl Dahlhaus , Albrecht Riethmüller and Alexander L. Ringer (eds.): Beethoven - interpretations of his works. , 1994, Volume 1, p. 14
  3. ^ A b Franz Gerhard Wegeler , Ferdinand Ries : Biographical notes on Ludwig van Beethoven . Koblenz 1838; Reprint with additions and explanations by Alfred C. Kalischer, Berlin / Leipzig 1906; Reprint Hildesheim etc. 1972, p. 85
  4. ↑ Helga Lühning: The set of variations from the C minor Trio op. 1 No. 3 . In: Rudolf Bockholdt, Petra Weber-Bockholdt (eds.): Beethoven's piano trios. Symposium Munich 1990. Munich 1992, p. 52
  5. ^ A b Paul Bekker : Beethoven . 2nd Edition. Berlin 1912, p. 437
  6. ^ Brilliant Classics: Text / Libretti. In: Beethoven: Complete Works. 2008, p. 13.