It's 1793 in Vienna. In a much-heralded event, a 22 year-old Beethoven is presented to the music establishment as the logical heir to the great classical masters Haydn and Mozart. He offers up a set of piano trios known as Opus 1.
Ultimately, Beethoven will become the most pivotal figure in music history, blazing a transition away from classicism to the romantic, expressive, and other movements that followed, casting an enormous shadow over the field.
Question: are there signs foreshadowing Beethoven's eventual insurrection, even in his very first published work?
On April 11 at Stanford the Saint Michael Trio will re-enact Beethoven's coming out event and pose answers to that very question. The "informance" will feature slides, commentary, and demonstrations of Beethoven's compositional devices. Works to be performed include:
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Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Opus 1, Number 1 (finale).
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Piano Trio in C minor, Opus 1, Number 3 (entire).
- Allegro con brio
- Andante cantabile con variazioni
- Menuetto: Quasi Allegro
- Finale: Prestissimo
If you're interested to familiarize yourself with the C minor trio in advance, you might enjoy this 2007 performance by the Staier-Sepec-Queyras Trio, which is rendered on instruments in use during Beethoven's lifetime.
Saint Mike also highly recommends listening to Beethoven's most famous piece, the one that made him iconic, his 5th symphony. This vintage film with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Symphony dates back to 1966, but it still crackles with energy and intensity.
You might also enjoy comparing the very most mature Beethoven against his first piano trio. If so, try this classic 1980 recording of Beethoven String Quartet in C-sharp minor performed by the Juilliard String Quartet.
There are mountains of books analyzing Beethoven and his music. We don't even know where to begin, but we do get a real kick out of this charming piece of detective work tracing the 200-year journey of Beethoven's hair.
Ultimately Beethoven's hair ends up in, of all places, San Jose State University, where you can see it even today. It is housed in the Ira Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, a trove of source material and Beethovenia that goes underappreciated.
