Notes for: July 22, 2014
The Opus 11 Trio is sometimes heard as a trio for violin, cello and piano, but Beethoven composed the trio for a particular clarinet virtuoso, Joseph Beer. When the work was published in 1798, he marked it for violin as well as clarinet to increase its commercial value.
The clarinet was still a new instrument, and few musicians were yet trained to play it. Wind instruments, moreover, were considered socially inferior to keyboard and string instruments, and until late in the 19th century composers often arranged wind music for string instruments for salon performances. Today’s audiences are likely to hear the trio in either instrumentation.
When Beethoven wrote the trio, he was only 28 and had not yet mastered the technical and tonal resources of the clarinet. The trio, consequently, makes few virtuoso demands on the performer. In converting the clarinet part to the violin, moreover, Beethoven took the music as written, adding none of the customary challenges for the violinist – no double stops, no unwieldy bowing passages, no runs on the upper strings. Whether in the clarinet or violin versions, the work has the relaxed, carefree air of a divertimento, a piece composed mainly for an evening’s entertainment.
The trio is in three movements. The first is in easily followed sonata form, with the three instruments announcing the main theme in unison. The rest of the movement is marked by surprising harmonic shifts – for example, at the opening of the second theme. After a strong F major chord, the piano plays a quiet phrase in the unexpected key of D major, after which the clarinet resumes the theme in F major as intended. Later the piano phrase opens the development in the even more unexpected key of D flat.
The slow movement is built on two expressive themes – the first a singing melody introduced by the cello and the second started by the cello’s ascending scale answered by the clarinet. There is a short but dramatic development.
The third movement is a set of variations on a popular opera tune of the day from L’Amor Marinaro by Joseph Weigl. The tune has a frivolous character –– its first line can be translated roughly as “Before I go to work, I must have something to eat!” There is some evidence that the theme was suggested to Beethoven by either Beer or Beethoven’s publisher, and that the composer later regretted the idea. At any rate, there are nine variations, all witty and light-textured, followed by a closing section in 6/8 rhythm.