Piano Trios

[Susan]

I found a 3 cd set of B's piano trios by 'Trio Fontenay', and am thrilled with it, very exciting and the sound is fabulous. I'm new to these trios and would be interested in hearing about anybody elses' favourite recordings.
Thanks!

Susan

[Peter]

First I have to say how lucky you are to be discovering the trios for the first time !

I have recordings of the 'Ghost' and 'Archduke' by the Beaux Arts Trio on Philips and the Op.1 trios played on period instruments by the Castle trio.



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'Man know thyself'

[Susan]

Thanks, I'd like to hear what these trios sound like on period instruments so I'll check this out.
I'd heard some movements of the trios by themselves, but not the complete pieces. Loved the 2nd movement of the 'Ghost', and when I finally heard the entire piece on this cd, I was completely taken. Unbelievable! I've long thought his sonatas were the best (I have a piano fixation ), but these trios are right up there. His use of the cello (violincello) is so powerful; geez I'd love to hear some of these pieces live!

Susan

[Peter]

Originally posted by Susan:
I've long thought his sonatas were the best (I have a piano fixation ), but these trios are right up there. His use of the cello (violincello) is so powerful; geez I'd love to hear some of these pieces live!

Susan

Beethoven never disappoints ! - All the Chamber music is 'right up there'. I agree, nothing compares to a live performance and the pleasure of sharing the experience with others.

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'Man know thyself'

[Rod]

Originally posted by Susan:
Thanks, I'd like to hear what these trios sound like on period instruments so I'll check this out.
I'd heard some movements of the trios by themselves, but not the complete pieces. Loved the 2nd movement of the 'Ghost', and when I finally heard the entire piece on this cd, I was completely taken. Unbelievable! I've long thought his sonatas were the best (I have a piano fixation ), but these trios are right up there. His use of the cello (violincello) is so powerful; geez I'd love to hear some of these pieces live!

Susan

The Castle Trio have 3 'volumes' of B's trios that include everything appart, for some reason, op70. Of the 3 I can only really recommend Vol1, of which the highlight is op1 no3, which sounds fantastic and highlights very well why I prefer the fp for Beethoven. Vol 2 is not so hot, the piano sound is not so well captured. Vol 3 has the Archduke and (uniquely) plays the trio twice in the scherzo as B demands, but the first and last movements lack a little pace for my taste. For a pretty good 'authentic' account of the 'Archduke' and 'Ghost' there is a new recording on Sony by Jos van Immerseel and Vera Beths. Tempi here are generally faster than the norm throughout, especially in the 'Ghost' movement, which is usually laboured beyond what the notes can accomodate to my ears. The quicker tempo reveals some new things that one is not aware of in traditional renditions. Some people like it as slow as possible but the price is that interesting phrases are lost as the melody is streched to nothing.



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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[marco]

Originally posted by Susan:
I found a 3 cd set of B's piano trios by 'Trio Fontenay', and am thrilled with it, very exciting and the sound is fabulous. I'm new to these trios and would be interested in hearing about anybody elses' favourite recordings.
Thanks!

Susan

Although I find it is a myopic judgement to 'judge' a recording in general, perhaps there are two recordings of Beethoven's pianotrio's; The B-flat Op.97 and the Op.121a 'Kakadu variations' that are indeed so 'special' (by circumstances) that anyone who loves Beethoven's music should be very familiar with them. The recordings I am talking about are played by the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals pianotrio. Recorded in 1928 and 1926, it takes time to listen through the 'primitive' recording technique, but precisely 'because' of this, what's left is purely the product of three men with great insight in performing Beethoven's music. These men had been playing these pianotrio's for over fourty years (not all the time together, but nevertheless) and are passing on 'A way' of playing Beethoven's music 'correctly', still having been brought up and playing in the 19th century performing tradition. I am confident that they made recordings of pianotrio's, purely for 'fun', neither one of them needed for their own sake to get his name on a label. (They were far more famous on their own)Why these recordings are my 'favourite' is because I think it shows that the fundamental value of a performance lies as much in the mastery of the performing skills as in the abbility to 'understand' what the dots on paper from Beethoven (or any given composer) imply, without them contradicting. This means that there are as many ways of playing Beethoven 'right' as there are performers in the world, the only problem is that for every single performer there is only 'one' 'right' way he/she can play while performing. Uniformity in performing behaviour, kills any music in time, no matter how big a genius the composer of the music might have been (or is).
(you can buy the complete recordings of pianotrios by the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio: EMI references CHS 7 64057 2 or USA CDHC 64057

[Susan]

Thanks, Peter, Rod and marco, for all your suggestions, I've written them down (my memory is not so sharp any more ) I'm quite intrigued by the idea of the 2nd movement of the 'Ghost' being played at a faster tempo; I love hearing something 'new' in a piece of music.

thanks guys ,

susan

[deSitter]

Issac Stern, Leonard Rose, and Eugene Istomin is a classic recording.

I think Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline DuPre, and Itzhak Perlman recorded them. That HAS to be good!

If you like these pieces, try the cello sonatas - DuPre (cello) and Barenboim is great. Contains two of Beethoven's most advanced chamber pieces, the Op. 102 sonatas.

[euphony131]

Trio -- the term's always confused me. There are piano-trios but there's also what people refer to as the "trio portion" in a symphonic mvt. How exactly are they different?

[This message has been edited by euphony131 (edited 02-22-2001).]

[Peter]

Originally posted by euphony131:
Trio -- the term's always confused me. There are piano-trios but there's also what people refer to as the "trio portion" in a symphonic mvt. How exactly are they different?

[This message has been edited by euphony131 (edited 02-22-2001).]

The Trio in a Sonata/Symphony comes as the middle section of a Minuet or Scherzo - It was originally written in 3 parts, hence Trio. A Piano Trio or string trio is a complete work - a Sonata obviously for 3 players.

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'Man know thyself'