Program Notes
Beethoven Op. 18 No. 4
As a composer, Beethoven poured a proportionally large amount of his time and creative energy into writing chamber music. In fact, from his first published piano trio (Op. 1) to his last completed work, the Grosse Fugue (Op. 133), chamber music bookends his entire compositional output. Between Op. 1 and Op. 97, Beethoven advanced chamber music as a genre in terms of technical complexity, seriousness and musical ingenuity. These developments were made possible in part by the affluent sponsors and skilled professional string players who supported Beethoven’s efforts.
Beethoven’s first published chamber music pieces, the three Op. 1 piano trios, were written in 1792. That same year Beethoven moved from provincial Bonn to Vienna to study with Haydn and be immersed in the music scene; Mozart had passed away the year before. The piano trio as a genre was part of Haydn’s legacy that was taken up by Mozart. As a talented pianist, it is logical that Beethoven would choose to tackle composing piano trios before attempting to write string quartets. Young Beethoven’s ambition is evident in the large scale of his first three piano trios, each containing four movements. Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3 in C minor, the “Beethovenian key,” created some tension between Haydn and Beethoven. Haydn advised Beethoven against publishing it, feedback which Beethoven took poorly. Despite Haydn’s concerns, the trio was well received by the general public. Beethoven and Haydn’s quarrell over the piano trios is an early example of how the perspectives of the older master and the young pupil differed despite their respect for one another.
Beethoven wrote five string trios between 1790 and 1798. Later in his career, he never returned to the genre which supports the inference that they were a means to an end, the end being writing string quartets. The third movement of Op. 9 No. 3 can be seen retrospectively as a laboratory for the scherzo which he continues to develop in his string quartets. Beethoven’s string trios would most definitely have been compared to Mozart’s (i.e. Divertimento for String Trio, K. 563 in E-flat major) by informed Viennese chamber music aficionados, but Beethoven was becoming a master who could be compared only to himself. Therefore, his sponsors invested in a young musical pioneer, not a conservative thinker.
In 1799, Beethoven began working on his first set of string quartets, Op. 18, commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz. In order to prepare for this task, Beethoven “copied
movements from Haydn’s Op. 20 and Mozart’s 1785 quartets” by hand.1 String Quartet Op. 18 No. 4 is composed in the “Beethovenian key” of C minor and is the only minor quartet in the set. The first movement is full of almost theatrical drama, often playing with three-against-one textures in which the first violin part reacts to the lower three parts. Constant eighth notes accompanying the first theme, something very common in early classical works, have a more ominous undertone the way Beethoven employs them. Rather than a slow second movement, Beethoven wrote a light-hearted Andante scherzoso in C major whose fugal first theme is almost comical in its simplicity. The second theme in this movement is more chromatic and makes use of stretto. The third movement is a Menuetto, but not of the elegant kind. With accents on beat three, you can imagine when hearing this dance a less-than-skilled couple on the dance floor, stepping on each other’s toes as they move across the floor. The fourth movement, a rondo, showcases the virtuosic first violinist in a Hungarian folk style that Haydn, like Brahms, was fond of adapting to the concert hall. Concluding with a prestissimo coda, the virtuosic fourth movement comes to a heart-racing finish.
-Susan B. Price
Sept. 17, 2023
Beethoven Op. 18 No. 4
As a composer, Beethoven poured a proportionally large amount of his time and creative energy into writing chamber music. In fact, from his first published piano trio (Op. 1) to his last completed work, the Grosse Fugue (Op. 133), chamber music bookends his entire compositional output. Between Op. 1 and Op. 97, Beethoven advanced chamber music as a genre in terms of technical complexity, seriousness and musical ingenuity. These developments were made possible in part by the affluent sponsors and skilled professional string players who supported Beethoven’s efforts.
Beethoven’s first published chamber music pieces, the three Op. 1 piano trios, were written in 1792. That same year Beethoven moved from provincial Bonn to Vienna to study with Haydn and be immersed in the music scene; Mozart had passed away the year before. The piano trio as a genre was part of Haydn’s legacy that was taken up by Mozart. As a talented pianist, it is logical that Beethoven would choose to tackle composing piano trios before attempting to write string quartets. Young Beethoven’s ambition is evident in the large scale of his first three piano trios, each containing four movements. Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3 in C minor, the “Beethovenian key,” created some tension between Haydn and Beethoven. Haydn advised Beethoven against publishing it, feedback which Beethoven took poorly. Despite Haydn’s concerns, the trio was well received by the general public. Beethoven and Haydn’s quarrell over the piano trios is an early example of how the perspectives of the older master and the young pupil differed despite their respect for one another.
Beethoven wrote five string trios between 1790 and 1798. Later in his career, he never returned to the genre which supports the inference that they were a means to an end, the end being writing string quartets. The third movement of Op. 9 No. 3 can be seen retrospectively as a laboratory for the scherzo which he continues to develop in his string quartets. Beethoven’s string trios would most definitely have been compared to Mozart’s (i.e. Divertimento for String Trio, K. 563 in E-flat major) by informed Viennese chamber music aficionados, but Beethoven was becoming a master who could be compared only to himself. Therefore, his sponsors invested in a young musical pioneer, not a conservative thinker.
In 1799, Beethoven began working on his first set of string quartets, Op. 18, commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz. In order to prepare for this task, Beethoven “copied
movements from Haydn’s Op. 20 and Mozart’s 1785 quartets” by hand.1 String Quartet Op. 18 No. 4 is composed in the “Beethovenian key” of C minor and is the only minor quartet in the set. The first movement is full of almost theatrical drama, often playing with three-against-one textures in which the first violin part reacts to the lower three parts. Constant eighth notes accompanying the first theme, something very common in early classical works, have a more ominous undertone the way Beethoven employs them. Rather than a slow second movement, Beethoven wrote a light-hearted Andante scherzoso in C major whose fugal first theme is almost comical in its simplicity. The second theme in this movement is more chromatic and makes use of stretto. The third movement is a Menuetto, but not of the elegant kind. With accents on beat three, you can imagine when hearing this dance a less-than-skilled couple on the dance floor, stepping on each other’s toes as they move across the floor. The fourth movement, a rondo, showcases the virtuosic first violinist in a Hungarian folk style that Haydn, like Brahms, was fond of adapting to the concert hall. Concluding with a prestissimo coda, the virtuosic fourth movement comes to a heart-racing finish.
-Susan B. Price
Sept. 17, 2023