Juilliard Chamber Music: Haydn and Beethoven

Despite the rain, a large crowd  was in attendance yesterday afternoon at Alice Tully to hear a one-hour program of piano trios composed by Haydn and Beethoven.  Part of Juilliard's Wednesday at One series, the recital featured three Artist Diploma Performers - Elizabeth Fayette (violin), Jiyoung Lee (cello) and Andrew Tyson (piano) - who together gave an outstanding performance.

The program began with Haydn's Piano Trio in C, Hob. XV/27 (1797).  Although Haydn is often referred to as the "godfather" of both the classical symphony and string quartet, this prolific composer also produced an astonishing number (45!!) of piano trios whose innovative style bridged the gap between the Baroque sonata with continuo and the modern piano trio as written by Mozart and Beethoven.  This particular trio (#43) was one of Haydn's last and composed during his stay in London.  Dedicated to the accomplished pianist Theresa Bartolozzi, the piece contains a very demanding piano part but also gives the violin and cello more fully realized parts than are typical of the "accompanied sonata."  The work is in many ways the culmination of Hadyn's development of the genre and is a cheerful bright work that is thoroughly enjoyable to hear.

The second piece on the program was Beethoven's Piano Trio in B-flat, Op. 97 (1811), nicknamed the "Archduke" for its dedication to Archduke Rudolph of Austria.  Considered by the composer to be among his finest works, the work has always been his best known piano trio and one of his most popular chamber pieces.  It was also the final trio Beethoven wrote and the last, due to his increasing deafness, on which he performed as pianist.  The Wikipedia article quotes violinist Louis Spohr:

"In forte passages the poor deaf man pounded on the keys until the strings jangled and in piano he played so softly that whole groups of notes were omitted."

The work is also notable, when compared to the "accompanied sonatas" written by earlier composers, for raising the violin and cello parts to the same level of importance as that given the piano.