- English
- Русский
Посв. графине Marie von Erdödy, 1808
Трио №5 D-dur, Opus 70 №1 ('Geister Trio')
1. Allegro vivace con brio
2. Largo assai ed espressivo
3. Presto
Вильгельм Кемпф (фортепиано)
Генрик Шеринг (скрипка)
Пьер Фурнье (виолончель)
Фортепианное трио D-dur, opus 70, №1, было написано в 1809. Его минорная медленная часть, Largo assai ed espressive, наполнена хроматизмами и тремоло, которые Карл Черни ассоциировал со сценой из Шекспира, в которой Гамлет встречает дух своего отца. Однако, эта музыка относится совсем не к Гамлету, а к Макбету. В 1808 Бетховен работал над оперой «Макбет», и музыкальные идеи этого несостоявшегося проекта нашли воплощение в медленной части Трио.
The two piano trios of Ludwig van Beethoven's Opus 70 were both composed in 1808 during the composer's stay at the house of the Countess Marie von Erdödy; out of gratitude for her hospitality, he dedicated both works to her. The Op. 70 trios inaugurated a period during which Beethoven wrote a great deal of chamber music both dense and wonderfully intimate. The Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, Op. 70, No. 1, has three movements, an old-fashioned scheme that Beethoven endows with new concision. Because of its strangely scored and undeniably eerie-sounding slow movement it was dubbed the "Ghost" Trio. The name has stuck with the work ever since. The ghostly music may have had its roots in sketches for a Macbeth opera that Beethoven was contemplating at the time.
But one mustn't listen for ghosts in the other two movements—they positively sparkle with life, from the wonderfully boisterous metric obfuscation that opens the Allegro vivace e con brio first movement (the movement is in 3/4 time, but in the first few measures the eighth notes, after a single group of three, are grouped in fours), through the swinging scales that underscore that same movement's second theme, and finally to the humorous, scampering Presto finale and its occasional comic fermatas. And yes, one should chuckle as the pianist, violinist, and cellist try desperately not to step on each other's toes when, near the close of both the exposition and the recapitulation of the finale, the piano takes off with a rapid-fire little right-hand cadenza that moves to a completely ridiculous key and the strings have no choice but to help the piano find its way back by spinning out a chromatically ascending sequence in octaves that does manage to arrive at the proper key but, unfortunately, manages to get the downbeats all out of sync!
More serious structural thinking is on display as well—consider the elaborate modulation from tonic to dominant in the first movement's exposition, forecast by a quick shading, as in the Symphony No. 3, within moments of the beginning of the piece. The harmonic scheme of the work as a whole is elaborate, with references and interconnections between movements. As much as any other work Beethoven ever wrote, the "Ghost" Trio invites and challenges listeners to appreciate it at a variety of levels.
(All Music Guide)
Трио №6 Es-dur, Opus 70 №2
1. Poco sostenuto. Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegretto
3. Allegretto ma non troppo
4. Finale: Allegro
Вильгельм Кемпф (фортепиано)
Генрик Шеринг (скрипка)
Пьер Фурнье (виолончель)
Composed in the same year, the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, the Trios, Op. 70, represent a return to the traditional intimacy of chamber music that Beethoven had put aside in favor of composition on a grand, symphonic scale. In contrast to works of the previous five years, the Trios, Op. 70, are more lyrical and seemingly freer harmonically. Beethoven dedicated the Trios, Op. 70, to Countess Marie Erdödy, in whose home the composer had recently taken lodgings and who hosted their first performance in December 1808.
The trios are highly intricate and imbued with subtle implications that have large-scale realizations, sometimes in another movement. The motivic manipulation and harmonic exploration that are hallmarks of Beethoven's mature style are evident throughout these works. Of the Trio in E flat, Donald Francis Tovey noted that Beethoven had achieved an "integration of Mozart's and Haydn's resources, with results that transcend all possibility of resemblance to the style of their origins...." While Tovey's assessment is arguably a slight exaggeration, the first movement of the Trio in E flat gives an idea of what he meant. Beginning with a slow introduction, a practice generally associated with Haydn, the 4/4 time signature shifts to 6/8 for the sonata form proper. An abrupt modulation ushers in the second theme group, the first part of which is on the dominant minor. The development section passes quickly through numerous harmonies while developing fragments of the first theme, after which the recapitulation sneaks in almost imperceptibly and in the "wrong" key. Beethoven sets the second theme group in the tonic minor but reaffirms the tonic major through an extended closing group and, strikingly, the return of the slow introduction. Although the Trio in E flat is a four-movement work, there is no slow movement. An Allegretto set of variations, in C major, appears in its place. The movement features two themes, one in the tonic and the second in C minor, both of which are varied. An extended scherzo fills the third spot in the work. Beethoven's format departs from tradition in that some of the repeats are not literal. Furthermore, the movement is arranged so that the trio section appears twice. The overall lyricism of the movement sets it apart from most of Beethoven's previous scherzos. Virtuosic in conception, the finale resembles the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C major, "Waldstein," Op. 53, in that the second theme is in the major mediant (in the case of the Trio, G major) instead of the dominant. When the second theme group appears in the recapitulation it is set in C major, not the tonic. Beethoven thereby creates "tonal balance" by writing the second theme first a third above, then below, the tonic. Such harmonic relationships are abundant in Beethoven's late works.
(All Music Guide)