COMMENTS
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born December 16, 1770; Bonn, Germany
Died March 26, 1827; Vienna, Austria
Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 97 (Archduke)
COMPOSED 1811
The Trio in B-flat major, op. 97, prevailing as one of Beethoven’s most exquisite compositions, is an unparalleled tour de force of the piano trio repertoire. Its nickname, Archduke, reflects the refinement and regality of its musical form. The work is dedicated to Archduke Rudolph of Austria (1788–1831), Beethoven’s pupil and patron. Beethoven began sketches for this composition in 1810, completing the work in merely three weeks, from March 3 to 26, 1811. The trio was premiered at a charity concert held at Vienna’s Hotel zum Römischen Kaiser on April 11, 1814, with Beethoven at the piano, violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, and cellist Joseph Lincke. Due to his worsening deafness, this was the last time Beethoven played in public.
The aristocrats of Vienna, who had long supported Beethoven and for whom he composed most of his music, were losing their wealth and power at the time when the Archduke Trio was composed. Suffering financial duress
and increasingly irritated by his duties to Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven still managed to create a work of purest inspiration. In addition to the diminishing affluence of aristocratic society, a similar decline occurred in the amount of time they were able to devote to mastering instrumental techniques and performing the works of Beethoven and other composers. Ultimately, professional musicians from the middle class replaced the amateur aristocrats, and most chamber music-making took place in public concert halls instead of palace salons. The Archduke Trio marks the beginning of a wave of music composed expressly for professional players and to be performed in a public hall for a middle-class audience.
The Allegro moderato opens with a gentle, stately theme presented by the solo piano. After expanding to include the strings, the opening theme continues in unison and proceeds into the second subject, a commanding theme in G major, which is staccato in articulation and consists of pairs of descending phrases. The development, divided into three distinct sections, is alternately lively and modest. The movement then progresses to the recapitulation, which
above: Ludwig van Beethoven, copper engraving by Blasius Höfel (1792–1863) after a drawing by LouisRené Letronne (1790–1842), 1814
COMMENTS presents a slightly embellished version of the opening theme. A radiant coda completes the movement.
Instead of the conventional slow second movement, Beethoven introduces a sprightly scherzo, which more often sounds like a minuet than a scherzo. The movement begins with a rhythmic figure by the cello alone, then predominates until it introduces a striking chromatic passage, which contrasts with bursts of a waltz melody. The second theme, a lighthearted dance melody, is introduced shortly thereafter. Both sections are repeated, creating an overall form of A-B-A-B-A-coda.
One of Beethoven’s most beautiful slow movements, the Andante cantabile is based on a theme of exquisite simplicity in D major that he states at the beginning and then subjects to five interconnected variations. These refashion the original melody by expanding on the rhythmic motif while
PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY
Born May 7, 1840; Votkinsk, Russia
maintaining the elemental melodic and harmonic characteristics, creating music of indescribable beauty.
The finale, Allegro moderato, is a casual romp in rondo form, bringing to mind images of Beethoven himself at the keyboard. Prior to his forthcoming deafness, Beethoven was a superior pianist, although he was probably known more for his intensity and brilliance than for any air of delicacy. This dynamic last movement boldly intrudes on the serenity Beethoven had created in the Andante cantabile. Following the Andante without a pause, the finale springs forth with the B-flat refrain, repeating and refining it five times. The last two manifestations are modified into 6/8 meter. Increasing in momentum, the final refrain simplifies the theme and spins hastily into an extended coda, marked presto. Beethoven concludes the Archduke Trio in a brilliant, colossal sweep.
Died November 6, 1893; Saint Petersburg, Russia
Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50
In March 1881, pianist Nicholas Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky’s former teacher and longtime
friend died, filling the composer with deep remorse. For months afterward, Tchaikovsky was unable to write, but finally, in December of that year, he was to begin work on this piano trio. Previously, Tchaikovsky had considered the combination of piano and strings as
unfavorable to him. Indeed, he wrote very little chamber music. (In addition to this piano trio, Tchaikovsky wrote three string quartets and a sextet for strings, Souvenir de Florence.) But as the composer planned a memorial to his great friend and advocate, a work for piano trio began to take shape. Dedicated to “the memory of a Great Artist,” the Trio in A minor, op. 50, was completed in January 1882 and received its first performance in a private concert at the Moscow Conservatory, commemorating the first anniversary of Rubinstein’s death. The first public performance took place on October 30, 1882, in Moscow.
The trio is composed in two very lengthy movements. The first is called Pezzo elegiaco (Elegy Piece). Tchaikovsky is, of course, a supreme master of melody, and in this one movement he presents four distinctive themes, each differing in style and mood. The first, warm and melancholy, is announced by the cello before being taken up by the violin with a syncopated accompaniment for the piano. The second theme is presented by the piano alone. It is thoroughly Russian in style and a triumphant song. A sweet, sad melody follows as the violin and cello play in octaves. The final theme is highly expressive, leading to intricate transformations of all the melodic material previously presented.
Throughout the first movement, the piano is prominent and extremely difficult, in tribute to Rubinstein’s pianistic virtuosity. The second movement, however, pays tribute to Rubinstein’s love of folk music. It is said to recall a very personal moment for the composer and his friend when, in May 1873, the two traveled with other professors at the Moscow Conservatory for a picnic at Sparrow Hill on the outskirts of Moscow. Rubinstein bought food and wine for the curious peasants who had gathered, and the peasants, at Rubinstein’s urging, began to sing and dance. The theme that Tchaikovsky uses in this movement is original; however, it possesses the simplicity and directness of the folk music he heard that day. It is announced by piano alone and is subjected to eleven variations, each imaginatively developed and recalling various aspects of Rubinstein’s personality and incidents in his friendship with the composer. The concluding section, Finale e coda, is actually a summation of all that has come before in the form of a twelfth variation. It returns to a glorious restatement of the opening theme of the first movement before building to a rhapsodic funeral march, bringing to a close this unique and magnificent tribute.
Comments provided by Columbia Artists Management Inc.
opposite page: Pyotr Tchaikovsky, calling-card portrait, 1880, Vezenberg & Company, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington (D.C.)
PROFILES
Anne-Sophie Mutter Violin
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical phenomenon: for nearly five decades, the virtuoso has been a fixture in the world’s major concert halls, making her mark on the world as a soloist, mentor, collaborator, humanitarian, and visionary artist. A prolific recording artist with four Grammy awards, Mutter is equally committed to the performance of the traditional violin catalog and to the expansion of the repertoire. To date, she has given world premieres of thirty-two works, written for her by such distinguished composers as Thomas Adès, Unsuk Chin, Sebastian Currier, Aftab Darvishi, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, and John Williams.
Dedicated to supporting young talented musicians, Mutter founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 1997, to which the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation was added in 2008. These two charitable institutions provide individually tailored support for the foundation’s scholarship recipients. Since 2011 she has regularly shared the spotlight on stage with her ensemble of fellows known as Mutter Virtuosi. In addition, she is dedicated to supporting numerous charity projects and has been a member of the Lucerne Festival Board of Trustees since 2022.
Anne-Sophie Mutter’s 2025 concert calendar—the year before her fiftieth anniversary of performing on stage in Lucerne—once again reflects the violinist’s musical versatility and her unrivalled standing in the world of classical music with performances in Europe and North America. With two world premieres, she will once again present her audience with new repertoire.
Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis rang in their thirty-seventh year of collaboration on a U.S. recital tour in April, including the world premiere at Carnegie Hall of Darvishi’s new work for solo violin, Likoo, Mutter’s first world premiere of a work by an Iranian composer. She will present her second world premiere of 2025 in October at Vienna’s Musikverein with a work by Max Richter for violin and orchestra.
Anne-Sophie Mutter has been recognized around the world for her contribution to the arts, culture, social causes, and leadership. She has been awarded the German Grand Order of Merit, French Medal of the Legion of Honor, Bavarian Order of Merit, Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria, and numerous other honors. Most recently, the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow bestowed an honorary doctorate upon her in 2022, and in 2023, she received the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize and a Gold Medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Mutter records for Deutsche Grammophon, and her music is available on Sony, EMI Classics, and Erato/ Warner Classics.
Yefim Bronfman Piano
Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors, and recital series. His commanding technique, power, and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by press and audiences alike.
Bronfman began the 2024–25 season with the Pittsburgh and NDR Hamburg symphony orchestras on tour in Europe, followed by a tour in China and Japan with the Vienna Philharmonic. With orchestras in the United States, he returns to Cleveland, New York, Houston, Portland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Miami, Sarasota, and Pittsburgh and in Europe to Hamburg, Helsinki, Berlin, Lyon, and Vienna. In recital, he can be heard in Austin, St. Louis, Stillwater (OK), San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Washington (D.C.), Amsterdam, Rome, Lisbon, and Spain. Two special projects are scheduled this season: duos with flutist Emmanuel Pahud in Europe in the fall and trios with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrández in the United States in the spring.
Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert
Blomstedt, Vladimir Jurowski, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap van Zweden, and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the United States. Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, he has partnered with Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Magdalena Kožená, and many others. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Bronfman’s first public performances there since immigrating to Israel at age fifteen.
Widely praised for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings, Bronfman has been nominated for six Grammy awards, winning in 1997.
Yefim Bronfman was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973. In the United States, he studied at the Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music under Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, in 2010 he was further honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and in 2015 with an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
Bronfman has recorded for Sony Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, Canary Classics, RCA, Arte Nova Classics, and Pentatone.
Pablo Ferrández Cello
Pablo Ferrández is a prizewinner at the Fifteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition and a Sony Classical exclusive artist. He has turned into a cello phenomenon and one of the most in-demand instrumentalists of his generation.
His debut album under Sony Classical, Reflections, released in 2021, was highly acclaimed by the critics and received the Opus Klassik Award. In the fall of 2022, he released his second album, which comprised Brahms’s Double Concerto, performed with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Czech Philharmonic under Manfred Honeck, and Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, performed with Mutter and Lambert Orkis.
His recent seasons have seen him appearing with the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Filarmonica della Scala, Israel Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, and Seoul Philharmonic, among others. He has also toured with the London Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Antwerp Symphony, and the Czech Philharmonic. Ferrández is frequently invited to internationally renowned festivals, such as Verbier, Salzburg, Dresden, Sion, Tsinandali, Abu
Dhabi, and Dvořák Prague Festival, among others.
The 2024–25 season brings his returns to the Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, London Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, KBS Symphony, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, where he plays Brahms’s Double Concerto alongside AnneSophie Mutter and Kazuki Yamada. Ferrández will also debut with NDR Radiophilharmonie Orchester, Belgian National Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and North Carolina Orchestra and will be artist-in-residence at the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea. Additionally, he will tour with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Borusan Philharmonic, and with the WDR Sinfonieorchester under Orozco-Estrada in Spain. Pablo Ferrández will appear in trio alongside Mutter and Yefim Bronfman on tour in the United States and with Janine Jansen and Denis Kozhukhin at Vienna Musikverein and Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht, and as recitalist in New York, Baltimore, Milan, Florence, Bilbao, Laufen, Munster, and in the Aix-enProvence, Sion, Peralada,Verbier, and Abu Dhabi festivals.
Ferrández plays the Stradivarius “Archinto” 1689, on a generous lifelong loan from a member of the Stretton Society.
PHOTO BY KRISTIAN SCHULLER
