Notes for: July 30, 2019
Vienna at the end of the 18th century was a city awash in music, and the nobility were eager to become patrons of promising young musicians like Beethoven, who took the city by storm after his arrival in 1792. At first Beethoven made his reputation as a piano virtuoso, famous for his fiery keyboard improvisations. According to one observer, “His playing tore along like a wildly foaming cataract.” Soon, as he absorbed and mastered the Viennese Classical style, Beethoven began to be lionized as a composer as well.
During his early years in Vienna, Beethoven worked his way through genres in which Haydn and Mozart had set the standard: piano sonatas, piano and string trios, string quartets, symphonies. But he also wrote lighter works. One popular musical entertainment was the divertimento or serenade. Beethoven’s contribution to this genre was the ingratiating Serenade for String Trio in D Major. It is a graceful and good-humored work, full of vitality; and while it looks back to the Classical 18th century rather than ahead to the revolutions to come, it is not without some adventurous touches.
The Serenade has six movements – seven, if you count the opening March and Adagio as two. It begins with a jaunty march that announces that the entertainment is about to begin. The violin takes the lead in the lyrical section that follows, a gentle and untroubled Adagio, charmingly melodious. Next comes the first of the dances, a Menuetto with a trio. This movement has some humorous surprises: brusque chords introduce it, and a playful pizzicato coda ends it. Beethoven’s sense of humor emerges in the next movement, too. The expressive but melancholy Adagio that begins the movement is interrupted by a short, mercurial scherzo, amusingly scored for the three instruments. This happens twice in the movement, so that by the time the Adagio makes its final reappearance, it’s hard to take it entirely seriously. Any lingering gloom is banished by the fourth-movement polonaise, an infectious dance that in Beethoven’s hand radiates good cheer. Next, he turns to a form for which he already was well known, a theme with variations. He had written many sets of variations for the piano, most of them consisting of ornaments on a theme, and that is the pattern he follows here. All of the variations are gracious elaborations on a lovely melody, with each instrument getting its turn to take the lead. Finally, Beethoven repeats the opening March to bring his entertainment to its genial conclusion.
Despite Beethoven’s reputation for being moody and pugnacious, he also could be “merry, mischievous, full of witticisms and jokes,” as Czerny once described him. The lighthearted Serenade is a delightful reminder of that Beethoven.