The complete edition of Beethoven’s works for piano trio is rounded out with
this release of the fifth volume, also the high point of the series: the Triple Concerto,
recorded here with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, is not a chamber
music work, but a concerto for piano trio and orchestra that posed special challenges
to the composer due to the presence of three soloists. The work’s originality
lies in the art of balancing the detail of chamber music with orchestral “al
fresco.” The concerto can be discovered alongside the skillfully-written Kakadu
Variations, op. 121a, with their folk-like character, a work probably composed
in 1809.
The Piano Trio WoO 38 was composed in 1790/91 and is thus dating from
Beethoven’s Bonn period – an early stage of his chamber music compositions.
During his lifetime the work remained unpublished.
The Swiss Piano Trio concludes its journey through the cosmos of Beethoven’s
piano trio works with his “final word” in the genre, the Allegretto, WoO 39
dating from 1812. As brief as it is striking, its lyrical, hovering atmosphere
already anticipates Beethoven’s late works.
• Variations in G major, Op. 121a on
‘ Ich bin der S chneider K a k a du ’
• Piano Trio in E-flat major, WoO 38
• Allegretto in B-flat major, WoO 39
• Concerto in C major, Op. 56 ‘Triple Concerto’ |
|