Phone
Tablet - Portrait
Tablet - Landscape
Desktop
Toggle navigation
Performers
Steinway Performers
Albright, Charlie
Anderson, Greg
Arishima, Miyako
Benoit, David
Biegel, Jeffrey
Birnbaum, Adam
Braid, David
Brown, Deondra
Brown, Desirae
Brown, Gregory
Brown, Melody
Brown, Ryan
Caine, Uri
Chen, Sean
Chulochnikova, Tatiana
Deveau, David
Farkas, Gabor
Feinberg, Alan
Fung, David
Gagne, Chantale
Golan, Jeanne
Goodyear, Stewart
Graybil, Matthew
Gryaznov, Vyacheslav
Gugnin, Andrey
Han, Anna
Han, Yoonie
Iturrioz, Antonio
Khristenko, Stanislav
Kim, Daniel
Li, Zhenni
Lin, Jenny
Lo Bianco, Moira
Lu, Shen
Mahan, Katie
Mao, Weihui
Melemed, Mackenzie
Min, Klara
Mndoyants, Nikita
Moutouzkine, Alexandre
Mulligan, Simon
Myer, Spencer
O'Conor, John
O'Riley, Christopher
Osterkamp, Leann
Paremski, Natasha
Perez, Vanessa
Petersen, Drew
Polk, Joanne
Pompa-Baldi, Antonio
Rangell, Andrew
Roe, Elizabeth Joy
Rose, Earl
Russo, Sandro
Schepkin, Sergei
Scherbakov, Konstantin
Shin, ChangYong
Tak, Young-Ah
Ziegler, Pablo
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Back 1 step
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello no 4 in D major, Op. 9 no 2
Interpretations
About This Work
Controls
Cover
Artists
Label
Movements
×
Add To Playlist
Success
This selection has been added.
Playlist
Create
Cancel
Confirm
Cancel
About This Work
The three trios of Op. 9 came near the end of Beethoven's first period, and are generally considered among his finest early chamber works. Indeed, they are of a quality that even allows them to stand alongside many of the mature compositions in the genre. They are more ambitious works than their chamber predecessors, each consisting of four movements, and each showing structural and stylistic elements found in the then-new Haydn symphonies, such as the adoption of four movements, employed in all three Trios here. As a group they comprise a giant step forward for the composer, and may even be viewed as a significant precursor to his innovations in the realm of the symphony.
The D major Trio opens with a theme (Allegretto) delivered quietly on the violin, but almost as if the first page had been ripped from the score, or at least as if the first few bars had been skipped. A second theme is then given by all the instruments, playing forte, maintaining the generally jovial mood of the music. It is almost as if this melody, delivered so emphatically by all the instrumentalists, is being presented as the work's real beginning. A third theme, of a more restrained character (marked dolce) but also somewhat playful, is presented to complete the exposition. The development section uses all three themes imaginatively and concludes with the cello playing in its highest reaches. At this point a subtly veiled account of the opening melody is given to launch the reprise. The movement closes with a jovial and colorful coda.
The second movement is marked Andante quasi allegretto and is rather playful, despite some slightly menacing pizzicato playing accompanying the main theme. A second melody appears and maintains the generally lighter character of the music. The material is reprised, though in different and imaginative ways, and there follows a coda.
A Menuetto marked Allegro follows. The two-part structure is not unusual but the movement as a whole seems rather Scherzo-ish, owing to the tempo marking and to the middle-section trio. The music is delightful in its lightness and thematic appeal, though some have found the trio both threadbare but effectively atmospheric in its lack of melodic material, its hazy dark rhythmic elements, and its mysterious pianissimo dynamics.
The finale is a Rondo marked Allegro. It is interesting that in the first Op. 9 Trio, the G major, Beethoven fashioned a Presto finale, his first that was not only not a Rondo, but a genuine sonata-allegro movement. The composer here returns to a form with which he had been quite successful and comfortable. The main theme of this movement is jovial, rather simple and, at the outset, where it is delivered three times in succession by the cello, somewhat bland. As the music proceeds, this theme takes on greater character from the viola harmonies and from development in exchanges among all the instruments. A second theme appears, more lyrical in character, after which the main material is reprised. There is further and quite brilliant thematic development, and the work closes with the violin intoning the happy opening theme.
All three of the Op. 9 Trios were first published in Vienna in 1798. The dedicatee of the them was one of Beethoven's leading patrons, the Russian Army Officer, Count Johann Georg von Browne. A typical performance of the D major Trio lasts around twenty-five minutes.
×
Add To Playlist
Success
This selection has been added.
Playlist
Create
Cancel
Confirm
Cancel
A8633B160E26524220F9EF6BC483AB28