trio no. 6 in b flat major opus 97 'archduke
TRANSCRIPT
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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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