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PHM 500-016

MONO STEREO PHS 900-016

PHILIPS

A royal work

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royal patron

BEETHOVEN

Trio No.6 in B flat major, Opus 97 “Archduke’’

Mieczyslaw LLOPSZOWSKL, FLAN. ks , ge tan ahh a, a

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ISSUED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE BEETHO

BEETHOVEN'S PIANO TRIO in B flat major, Opus 97, is dedicated

to his illustrious pupil the Archduke Rudolph of Austria, for

whom he also wrote the celebrated Missa Solemnis when the

Archduke later became Archbishop of Olmiitz. The original

manuscript of the work came from the possession of Paul

Mendelssohn to what was then the Prussian State Library in

Berlin. On the first page Beethoven has written “March 3,

1811,” and at the end of the manuscript “J! fine March 20,

1811.” Thus the whole work and the fair copy as well were

completed in barely three weeks. A sketchbook in:the Berlin

library, whose entries date from January to September of

1810, shows that work on the composition was pone, begun

the previous summer.

The trio was probably not performed in public until 1814,

thus at the time of the Congress of Vienna, when Beethoven

had recently enjoyed his greatest public triumphs with the

Seventh Symphony and the now almost forgotten Battle of

Vittoria. This public performance of the trio took place on

April 11, 1814, at a charity concert organized by Beethoven’s

friend the violinist Schuppanzigh, in the hotel “Zum Ro-

mischen Kaiser’ in Vienna. Here, as at a matinée performance

in the Prater a few weeks later, Beethoven played the piano

part himself. It was his last public appearance as a pianist. We

have a description of his playing from Ludwig Spohr, who was

present at a rehearsal of the Trio in Beethoven’s lodgings. He

writes: “It was no pleasure, for to begin with the piano was

very badly out of tune. This troubled Beethoven little, as he

could in any case hear nothing of it. Secondly, there was

hardly anything left of the once so greatly admired virtuosity

b SC tha, ae

of the artist. In forte passages, the poor deaf man pounded on

the keys until the strings jangled, and in piano he played so

faintly that whole groups of notes failed to sound. Thus it

became unintelligible unless one could at the same time look

at the written piano part. I felt a great sadness at such a cruel

fate. To be deaf is misfortune enough for anyone. How can a

musician bear it. without giving way utterly to despair? Bee-

thoven’s almost perpetual melancholy puzzled me no longer.”

The celebrated pianist Moscheles, who at that time regularly

attended Schuppanzigh’s quartet performances, relates that

Spohr declaimed “very zealously against Beethoven and his

followers,” and indeed Spohr’s account may very well hold a

note of artistic jealousy. Of the first performance of the Trio

on April 11, Moscheles wrote in his diary: “To how many

compositions is the word ‘new’ wrongly applied! Yet never to

Beethoven’s compositions, and least of all to this, which is

again full of originality. His playing, except in spirit, pleased

me less, for it has no purity or precision; yet I noticed many

traces of a great pianistic manner (grosses Spiel) which I had

already long recognized in his compositions.” The periodical

Der Sammler described the work as “in every respect beautiful

and original....Its beauties unfold measure upon measure,

and anyone who is not a supreme connoisseur is almost smoth-

ered by their mass.”

Beethoven ultimately became totally deaf, and all conversa-

tion with him had to be carried out in writing. A number of

notebooks which were used for this purpose have been pre-

served, the so-called “conversation books.” There is a pleasant

entry, dating from the spring of 1820, of a conversation with

Carl Czerny. Speaking of the B-flat major Trio, Czerny was

of the opinion that “the last trio also has a great effect on the

women.” (Beethoven inquired which particular movement he

had in mind, to which Czerny immediately replied, “The

Andante.”

Even when Beethoven was on his deathbed, conversation

turned to this most noble of the piano trios. Anton Schindler,

the master’s faithful friend-nurse-secretary, published from the

conversation books a discussion which he himself held with

the sick man, in March, 1827, scarcely two weeks before

Beethoven’s death. The composer’s answers are of course not

written down, but we can frequently conjecture their substance.

Schindler writes in the conversation book: “Today you are

quite well, so we can again poeticize a little—over the B-flat

major Trio, for instance, as when we were interrupted the

other day.” After a few more entries he writes: “I am most

eager to know something of the characterization of the B-flat

Trio.” Beethoven seems to have let Schindler give his own

interpretation, for then there follows: “The first movement is

a reverie of pure serenity, in which high spirits, gay trifling,

capriciousness, and determined self-will (Beethoven’s, if I may

say so) all have a place. Is this not so? In the second movement

the hero is on the highest pinnacle of bliss. In the third move-

ment the serenity changes to emotion, endurance, reverence,

etc. I consider the Andante to be the most beautiful ideal of

sanctity and godliness. ... Words avail nothing here; they are

poor servants of the divine word, which finds utterance in

music.”

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PRINTED IN U.S.A.

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