Klarinet Archive - Posting 000023.txt from 2009/10

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Beethoven Op. 11 clarinet trio
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:46:19 -0400

Jonathan, that is PERFECT!!! I wanted very much to tie the clarinet knot of
Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, and you hit the nail right on the head!!

Much thanks,

Dan Leeson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Cohler" <cohler@-----.org>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Beethoven Op. 11 clarinet trio

> In response to Dan L.'s query:
>
> Here is the article I wrote about the piece for my recent CD (Jonathan
> Cohler & Claremont Trio) that includes the Beethoven and Brahms Trios plus
> the Dohnanyi Sextet. This sheds some light on the confusion over this
> issue.
>
> Best,
> Jonathan Cohler
>
>
> Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
> Trio in B-flat Major for Piano, Clarinet, and Cello, Op. 11 (1797-8)
>
> Like Mozart before him and Brahms after him, Beethoven too was closely
> associated with a virtuoso clarinetist. For Mozart it was Anton Stadler,
> for Brahms it was Richard Mühlfeld, and for Beethoven it was Viennese
> clarinetist (Franz) Joseph Bähr (1770-1819). Bähr asked Beethoven to write
> this Trio, in fact, and he specifically suggested the theme for the third
> movement theme and variations. Bähr played in the premieres of this and
> several other works of Beethoven's.
>
> Many accounts of this work have confused the Viennese Bähr with the older
> Bohemian clarinetist (Johann) Joseph Beer (1744-1812), who was the first
> clarinetist to have a truly international solo career. (Beer worked
> closely with composer Carl Stamitz.) The multiple spellings of their
> names, some of which are identical, and the fact that both men performed
> in Vienna at the same time in the 1790s, added to the confusion, which has
> now been carefully sorted out by historians.
>
> The theme that Bähr suggested comes from the then very popular opera
> L'amor marinaro ossia Il corsaro ("Love at Sea" or "The Corsair") by
> Joseph Weigl, which opened on October 15, 1797. The tune is from the aria
> "Pria ch'io l'impegno", a light-hearted trio for three basses, which
> begins "Before we work, we must have something to eat." The tune was so
> popular at the time that several composers including Paganini, Joseph
> Eybler, Antonie von Lilien, and Beethoven, among others, wrote sets of
> variations based upon it. This Trio eventually acquired the name
> "Gassenhauer" ("popular song") as a direct result of that tune's
> popularity.
>
> Although Beethoven died before finishing the metronomization of all his
> works, Beethoven's student Carl Czerny provided metronome marks for this
> Trio in his book On the Proper Performance of all Beethoven's Works for
> Piano (Vienna 1820). As is usual for Beethoven, the fast tempi are very
> fast. Czerny's metronome mark for the first movement is quarter note
> equals 176! Curiously, no previous recordings of which I am aware come
> close to this mark, and most are a good 30 to 40 percent slower, thereby
> completely changing the movement's character. Given Beethoven's frequent
> admonitions on the importance of tempo, we attempted to follow the
> Czerny/Beethoven metronome markings in this recording, but never to the
> detriment of the musical values, which always require a certain amount of
> flexibility, as Beethoven also noted.
>
> In 1817, Beethoven wrote to Viennese composer Ignaz Franz Edler von Mosel
> (1772-1844), "As far as I am concerned, I have long thought of giving up
> the senseless terms, Allegro, Andante, Adagio, Presto, and for this
> Mälzel's metronome offers the best opportunity," and later in 1826, he
> wrote to his publisher B. Schott & Sons:
>
> "The metronome marks will shortly follow; do wait for them. In our age
> such things are certainly necessary; also I hear from Berlin that the
> first performance of the Symphony [No. 9] went off with enthusiasm, which
> I ascribe in great part to the metronome marking. We can scarcely have any
> more tempi ordinari, for one must follow the ideas of unfettered genius."
>
> According to Anton Schindler (1795-1864), Beethoven's first biographer,
> "When a work by Beethoven had been performed, his first question was
> always, 'How were the tempi?' Every other consideration seemed to be of
> secondary importance to him." Playing the first movement at the
> Czerny/Beethoven tempo of 176 certainly makes it very brilliant and
> exciting, in keeping with Beethoven's marking of "Allegro con brio."
>
> The work is dedicated to Maria Wilhelmine Gräfin von Thun, born Countess
> Uhlfeld (1744-1800), who was one of the most important women of Vienna's
> high nobility and a former patron of Mozart's. Later, two of her
> sons-in-law, Count (later Prince) Andreas Kyrillowitsch Rasumowsky and
> Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, also became patrons of Beethoven.
>
> The Trio was published on October 3, 1798. An interesting incident
> occurred in May of 1800, which has been related to us by another of
> Beethoven's students and friends, Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838). At this
> time, improvisational duals between rival virtuoso pianists were
> fashionable. The events were usually held at the home of a wealthy patron
> or member of the nobility and the audience would include supporters and
> patrons of each pianist. By this time, Beethoven was already known as
> perhaps the greatest improviser of all time, so he was rarely challenged.
> Nonetheless, this didn't stop virtuoso pianist and sometime charlatan
> Daniel Steibelt from making the challenge.
>
> They met first accidentally at the home of Count Moritz von Fries, a
> wealthy banker. According to Ries, Beethoven played this Trio, in which,
> "there is not much room for display," so Steibelt was confident he would
> prevail. Steibelt then played one of his quintets, improvised, "and made a
> good deal of effect with his tremolos" which were a new and impressive
> effect at that time. Beethoven couldn't be convinced to play again, but
> eight days later there was a second concert also held at Count Fries'.
> Ries notes,
>
> "Steibelt again played a quintet which had a good deal of success. He also
> played an improvisation (which had, obviously, been carefully prepared)
> and chose the same theme on which Beethoven had written variations in his
> Trio. This incensed the admirers of Beethoven and him. It was his turn to
> seat himself at the pianoforte and improvise. He went in his usual (I
> might say, ill-bred) manner to the instrument as if half-pushed, picked up
> the violoncello part of Steibelt's quintet in passing, placed it
> (intentionally?) upon the stand upside down and with one finger drummed
> out the theme from the first few measures. Then, impelled by his insulted
> and excited feelings, he improvised in such a manner that Steibelt left
> the room before he finished. He would never again meet him again, and,
> when invited anywhere, always stipulated that Beethoven should not be
> present."
>
> Beethoven won the duel decisively and was never again asked to take on any
> piano virtuosi; his position as the greatest improviser in the world was
> firmly established. Czerny relates that Beethoven later wished (perhaps as
> a result of the Steibelt incident?) that he had written a different finale
> of his own for the Trio. Although it was common at the time for composers
> to write variations based on another's theme, Beethoven did not like the
> practice, and this Trio is, according to biographer Barry Cooper, "the
> only one of Beethoven's multi-movement instrumental works" that contains
> such a set of variations.
>
> Written only six years after Mozart's death, when Beethoven was just 27
> years old, the Trio is more a part of the Classical period than the
> Romantic period, albeit with the jarring and unmistakably powerful
> characteristics of Beethoven throughout. The critic of Allgemeine
> musikalische Zeitung called it, "at various points not easy, but still
> more flowing than other works from this authorS" Given its fundamentally
> classical nature, however, we took the standard classical approach of
> adding ornamentation and a bit of improvisation on the repeat of the
> exposition in the first movement.
>
>>Does anyone have some information about the party for whom Beethoven wrote
>>the first of the two clarinet trios, Op. 11. (The other trio is an
>>arrangement of the septet, but that does not interest me here).
>>
>>The best of all possible worlds would be the full name, dates of birth and
>>death, and an image of some sort.
>>
>>Kind thanks,
>>
>>Dan Leeson
>>
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Cohler
> Artistic & General Director
> International Woodwind Festival
> http://iwwf.org/
> cohler@-----.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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