The Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre celebrates the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth with a series of chamber music events. In the final concert some singers and string ensembles are expected to perform Beethoven’s vocal music.
In 1801 the Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23, became a new stage in Beethoven’s violin compositions. Agitation and anxiety reign in the music; these feelings are reported to be associated with the drama of Beethoven’s life, when he noticed that his deafness was becoming more pronounced. The texture is ascetic in whole, and all three movements, despite expending remarkable energy along the way, end pianissimo (very softly).
The Duo for viola and cello in E-flat major, WoO 32, was written in 1796 to be playfully named Duett mit zwei obligaten Augengläsern (Duet with Two Obbligato Eyeglasses). Its name hinted that the both initial performers – the composer himself and Nikolaus Zmeskall, a friend of his and amateur cellist – were short-sighted men. The name of the duet chimes with the music representing a facetious dialogue between instruments.
An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved), Op. 98, was, in music history, the first song cycle which was later taken as a conceptual pattern by romantic composers. Beethoven wrote it in April 1816 after he had per post received the cognominal sequence of poems by Alois Jeitteles, a young physician and a fledgling poet. The composer was deeply impressed by their tallying with a situation in his personal life. Some researchers suggested that Beethoven’s song cycle was dedicated to his mysterious beloved to whom his few 1812 letters remained. However, she has not yet been identified. The cycle An die ferne Geliebte is secondarily titled Liederkreis (Song Cycle), and consists of six episodes which go with no interruption. It is written so that the theme of the first song reappears as the conclusion of the last, thus completing the cycle.
Twelve Irish Songs, WoO 154, are folksongs written for one or two voices to be accompanied by violin, cello and piano. This cycle is a typical example of the particular genre which became popular among European music lovers at the beginning of the 19th century. Professional composers renewed harmonization or instrumentation for well-known folk tunes, often setting them to new texts. Beethoven made similar arrangements being commissioned by George Thompson, an amateur musician and a folk song collector. Twelve Irish Songs were written by Beethoven between 1810 and 1813 but collected and published by Thompson after the composer’s death in 1855. Since some of Beethoven’s settings have seemed to Thompson to be too sophisticated or difficult for amateurs, their publication was put on a back burner. However, time has turned shortcomings into virtues, and now their harmonic variety gives an incredible intension or volume to a trio sounding.
Natalia Rogudeeva
