My favorite recordings
of Beethoven's string trios, out of a very crowded field, are with the
Leopold Trio on Hyperion. But these are full-priced discs, while the
current Brilliant Classics box with the Zurich String Trio goes for a
super bargain price. There should be more involved, however, than the
matter of cost in guiding you to a decision. If I tell you why I favor
the Leopold, you may find that the Zurich is more suited to your
personal taste.
These trios are among Beethoven's earliest published works.
Mozart's great E. Divertimento, K 563, was likely the young Beethoven's model. Whatever else one may say about them, evidence already exists in these very early trios, albeit in latent form, for the unique Beethoven persona that would soon emerge. Two examples will suffice.
The trio section of the first Menuetto in the E Trio: a lovely melody is floated in the violin over an arpeggiated accompaniment in the viola and pizzicato in the cello. It is repeated, as expected. Then, where the melody reappears appended to the end of the second strain of the trio section, it is not exactly restated; instead, it is suggested by a series of gestures in the violin part. But the ear hears outlined in those gestures the same melody, now made more poignant through the power of imagination.
This technique will become a Beethoven hallmark, and it is one of the devices that accounts for the capacity of his music to affect us in such profound ways. It is the means by which the essence of an idea is communicated without explicitly expressing it, leaving us to imprint upon it our own meaning. To grasp the fuller implications of this, skip 30 years ahead to the alla danza movement of the op. 130 Quartet, and listen to how Beethoven implants his lilting little tune in your head, only later to have the first violin weave a filigree around it. You hear the tune spun through the decorative lace, even though it's not literally there.
In other ways, the Scherzo from the C-Minor Trio is also a portent of things to come. The restless urgency and sense of underlying menace that pervade the first movement already warn of the Sturm und Drang that lie ahead. Compare this movement, for example, to the first movement of the op. 18/4 String Quartet in the same key. But most of all, it's the shock of the Scherzo (no joke, this) with its whiplash cross rhythms and syncopations that not only convey a sense of dire danger, but rip asunder the comity and conviviality of 18th-century upper-class Viennese Hausmusik . Caught up in the revolutionary spirit of the 1790s, Beethoven was already on his own path to personal liberation, and indeed, music would never again be the same.
What all of this boils down to is, how do you want to hear these works? If you prefer to hear them, as I do, as harbingers of something new and quite bold, the Leopold Trio places a premium on those very elements that make this music so daring and dramatic. If you prefer a lower-voltage approach, one that de-emphasizes the shock and awe, and presents these trios more within the well-mannered context of Haydn's and Mozart's drawing-room music, the present readings with the Zurich String Trio are, I can honestly say, among the best of that particular class.
So, strongly recommended, if you like your early Beethoven decaffeinated.
Credits : Arkiv Music
These trios are among Beethoven's earliest published works.
Mozart's great E. Divertimento, K 563, was likely the young Beethoven's model. Whatever else one may say about them, evidence already exists in these very early trios, albeit in latent form, for the unique Beethoven persona that would soon emerge. Two examples will suffice.
The trio section of the first Menuetto in the E Trio: a lovely melody is floated in the violin over an arpeggiated accompaniment in the viola and pizzicato in the cello. It is repeated, as expected. Then, where the melody reappears appended to the end of the second strain of the trio section, it is not exactly restated; instead, it is suggested by a series of gestures in the violin part. But the ear hears outlined in those gestures the same melody, now made more poignant through the power of imagination.
This technique will become a Beethoven hallmark, and it is one of the devices that accounts for the capacity of his music to affect us in such profound ways. It is the means by which the essence of an idea is communicated without explicitly expressing it, leaving us to imprint upon it our own meaning. To grasp the fuller implications of this, skip 30 years ahead to the alla danza movement of the op. 130 Quartet, and listen to how Beethoven implants his lilting little tune in your head, only later to have the first violin weave a filigree around it. You hear the tune spun through the decorative lace, even though it's not literally there.
In other ways, the Scherzo from the C-Minor Trio is also a portent of things to come. The restless urgency and sense of underlying menace that pervade the first movement already warn of the Sturm und Drang that lie ahead. Compare this movement, for example, to the first movement of the op. 18/4 String Quartet in the same key. But most of all, it's the shock of the Scherzo (no joke, this) with its whiplash cross rhythms and syncopations that not only convey a sense of dire danger, but rip asunder the comity and conviviality of 18th-century upper-class Viennese Hausmusik . Caught up in the revolutionary spirit of the 1790s, Beethoven was already on his own path to personal liberation, and indeed, music would never again be the same.
What all of this boils down to is, how do you want to hear these works? If you prefer to hear them, as I do, as harbingers of something new and quite bold, the Leopold Trio places a premium on those very elements that make this music so daring and dramatic. If you prefer a lower-voltage approach, one that de-emphasizes the shock and awe, and presents these trios more within the well-mannered context of Haydn's and Mozart's drawing-room music, the present readings with the Zurich String Trio are, I can honestly say, among the best of that particular class.
So, strongly recommended, if you like your early Beethoven decaffeinated.
Credits : Arkiv Music
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