Faculty colleagues Craig Sheppard, piano; Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cello; and Rachel Lee Priday, violin, conclude their three-concert performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven piano trios. The performance, live-streamed from the University of Washington’s Meany Hall, is followed by a brief question-and-answer session.
View on YouTube
PROGRAM
Trio movement in E flat, Hess 48 (1784)
Allegretto
Trio in E flat, WoO 38 (1790/91)
Allegro moderato
Allegro ma non troppo
Allegretto
Trio in E flat, Opus 44 (1792 – published 1804)
14 Variations on a Theme from Das Rote Käppchen
(The Little Red Hat) by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf:
Ja, ich muss mich von ihr scheiden (Yes, I must leave her)
Trio movement in B flat, WoO 39 (1812)
Allegretto (Dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano)
Trio in G Major, Opus 121a (1803-1816, published 1824)
10 Variations on Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu
(I am Kakadu, the Taylor) by Wenzel Müller
Introduzione: Adagio assai
Theme: Allegretto
Program Notes
The five short works on tonight’s program span most of Beethoven’s compositional life. The first three works are in the key of E flat, and all were written before Beethoven moved to Bonn in 1792 at the age of 21.
The first, Hess 48, appeared in a notebook of Beethoven’s dating from 1784 to 1790, and it has therefore been assumed that the work was from the earliest of those years, given it sparse style. My guess, though, is that it could have been written even a couple of years prior to that, before the three so-called Bonn Piano Sonatas (WoO) of 1781 and 1782. Certainly, these three sonatas show a much more sophisticated compositional style than the trio. Then again, the trio might have been a fragment of a work that Beethoven wished to develop further at a later date. We’ll never know.
The next piece is the three movement trio, WoO 38 (Work without Opus) from 1790. Considerably more developed than Hess 48, it sounds at times like Haydn, albeit Beethoven had not yet worked with the great man. The work has no slow movement and shows a lightness of touch, in keeping with the spirit of the times.
The third work is a set of fourteen variations on a theme from the romantic comic Singspiel (like an opera with a great deal of dialogue), Das Rote Käppchen (The Little Red Cap) by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. In it, the mayor of the town, Hans Christoph Nitsche, becomes wildly jealous when the young Lieutenant von Felsenberg gives the mayor’s wife a bit too much attention, and decides that he must leave her (Ja, ich muss mich von ihr scheiden – Yes, I must leave her). The opening theme, a series of unisons based on an E flat chord, finds the mayor tiptoeing around the house, spying on his wife and plotting his imminent departure. There is much frolicking in the ensuing variations, including two in the minor key. At the end, Hans has second thoughts momentarily, and lingers, then dashes for the door at the last second. Beethoven’s well-known ability to improvise is suggested strongly in this work. Written in the early months of 1792, the variations were published twelve years later, ergo the Opus 44 assigned to it.
The short trio movement in B flat, WoO 39, was composed in 1812 and dedicated to the ten year old Maximiliane Bretano, daughter of Antonia, the woman thought to have been the Immortal Beloved alluded to in a famous letter Beethoven wrote that same year. The suspicion lingers that this trio movement might have been written in order to gain Antonia’s attention, yet Beethoven thought highly enough of Maximiliane’s pianistic talent to dedicate his Opus 109 sonata to her eight years hence.
The Kakadu Variations, Opus 121a, are perhaps unique in Beethoven’s output, in that he composed the work in stages over an extended period. The Kakadu Variations uses a theme from a popular opera of the day by Wenzel Müller, Die Schwestern von Prag (The Sisters from Prague), which is yet another romantic comedy. The simple tune,Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu (I am Kakadu, the Taylor), is in G Major, and the majority of the variations are thought to have been composed in 1803. Around 1816, Beethoven added a lengthy introduction in G minor that takes up, timewise, slightly over a third of the piece. He also included a double fugue in the last variation that is redolent of his counterpoint from these later years (Opus 106, Opus 110, Opus 131, etc.). That theKakaduweren’t published until 1824, about the time of the Diabelli Variations (Opus 120) and the Ninth Symphony (Opus 125), lends credence to the possibility that further changes were made to the 1816 manuscript. The resultant stylistic differences have often been criticized within the musical community. We feel, on the other hand, that they are what give the work its unusual interest, both for us as performers and for the listener.
—Craig Sheppard, copyright 2020