Beethoven Triple Concerto

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, completed about the same time as the Eroica Symphony, has suddenly become popular. One reason for its previous lack of popularity was the fact that three soloists cost three times as much as one normally expensive pianist, violinist or cellist. Another reason is that the work seeks to be a popular success, hence the Rondo alla Polacca with which it concludes. The piano part was intended for Beethoven’s patron and pupil, the Archduke Rudolph von Habsburg, and hence is less technically demanding than the composer’s usual pianistic writing, destined for himself. The standard CD (previously LP) of the work was a spectacular performance and recording made by EMI many years ago with David Oistrakh, Rostropovich and Richter with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan. It was opulently played with the BPO’s luscious sound, but has little to do with what Beethoven would have heard in 1804. Another choice was the version of Stern, Rose and Serkin (Sony), less lush and not so high-powered as Karajan’s.

Ludwig van Beethoven is a fixture in the career of the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim: “Beethoven’s music is universal, no matter where you are in the world – it speaks to all people.” Before his thirtieth birthday, Barenboim had made legendary recordings of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and concertos. That said, he has also not shied away from the composer’s less frequently played works, those less liked by audiences and critics alike; on the contrary, he has approached them with great passion.

Go ahead, play rough and tough with Beethoven. He can take it: he's made of marble and stone and it'd take more than a couple hardcore eccentrics to ruin his reputation. This is not to say that gard-core eccentrics Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Nikolaus Harnoncourt don't give it their best shot. Like their earlier recording of the complete Piano Concertos of Beethoven, Aimard and Harnoncourt do what they like with his Triple Concerto, Rondo in B flat major, and Choral Fantasy to consistently terrible results. With violinist Thomas Zehetmair and cellist Clemens Hagen, Aimard and Harnoncourt turn in an ungainly and graceless recording of the graceful and gracious Triple Concerto.

The Brahms double concerto is simply in a class of its own with all musicians solely concerned with getting to the essence of the music and the way they play is simply sublime. I would also place this version of the Beethoven triple concerto above the celebrated EMI performance by Karajan, Oistrakh, Richter and Rostropovich which I also have. Fricsay and his soloists put the music first in a way true musicians know how to without having to resort to any gimmick of any kind . Here,tempi, orchestral dynamics and balance seem to happen in a most natural ,simple manner ,allowing the music to flow to the point of timelessness.

Since the Beaux Arts Trio last recorded Beethoven's Triple Concerto in 1977 two of its personnel have changed, with Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley taking over from Isidore Cohen and Bernard Greenhouse. That leaves Menahem Pressler, now in his seventies, as the ever-lively survivor. Not only does Pressler's playing sparkle even more brightly in the concerto than before, he is an inspired protagonist in the Choral Fantasia, setting the pattern of joyfulness in this performance from his opening improvisation-like solo onwards. The other prime mover is Kurt Masur, who has rarely conducted more electrifying Beethoven performances on disc.

In recent years the Storioni Trio has established itself as the leading Dutch piano trio. On this disc they perform two of Beethoven’s major works, the Triple Concerto opus 56, and the “Archduke” Trio opus 97. They are joined in the concerto by the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jan Willem de Vriend.

Beethoven's Triple Concerto works best when played like a svelte, bubbly concerto grosso rather than middle-period Beethoven pretending to be Elgar. For that to happen, you need a firm, decisive podium master who keeps everything clear and moving ahead. And you need three virtuoso soloists with rhythmic élan, beautiful tone, and radar-like ensemble sensitivity. Enter Zinman, Bronfman, Shaham, Mørk, and Zurich. No, that's not a law office, but rather the musician participants, who embody all the aforementioned criteria and come up with the best-integrated, least-platitudinous, most consistently characterized and caringly detailed Beethoven Triple Concerto ever committed to disc.

More than 200 years after its premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven’s gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt’s sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber musical intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication – and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece.

Lars Vogt continues his cycle of Beethovens Piano Concertos with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. On this second volume, the recording also includes Beethovens Triple Concerto where Lars Vogt is joined together with his longtime artistic partners Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff. Vogts recordings of chamber music with the trio have gathered astonishing reviews and recording awards, including a Grammy nomination for the recording of Brahms Piano Trios (ODE 1271-2D). Beethovens Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56 is a work radiant with joy, described by many as a concerto for piano trio and orchestra. The work, completed in 1803, has standed unrivaled in its genre.

Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56, commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and published in 1804 by Breitkopf & Härtel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio, and it is the only concerto Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument, also being the only concerto he wrote for cello. A typical performance takes approximately thirty-seven minutes.