If Beethoven composed some of his works in contrasting pairs, then the Piano Trio No. 7 (called the “Archduke”) complements the String Quartet No. 11 (Day 243). Where the string quartet is tight, intense, and experimental, the Archduke Trio is relaxed, expansive, and welcoming.
The Archduke Rudolph was Beethoven’s longtime composition student and patron, and Beethoven dedicated numerous works to him, but the Piano Trio No. 7 is the only one to have acquired the nickname of the “Archduke.” It is a memorial to the Archduke Rudolph like no other.
#Beethoven250 Day 247
Piano Trio No. 7 “Archduke” in B♭ Major (Opus 97), 1811
A very fine performance at the PyeongChang Music Festival in South Korea.
The long leisurely melody that begins the Archduke Trio instantly captivates with its symphonic sweep. Beethoven than proceeds to take it apart, explore its components, and then reassemble them in various ways.
The second movement of the Archduke Trio is a five-part Scherzo (if the repeat is taken) with a truly bizarre Trio section: It begins with a twisty chromatic — no, let’s call it atonal — canon-like passage that unexpectedly and ridiculously bursts into a waltz. We get such a kick out of it (and Beethoven knows it) that he does it two more times in different ways, and each time we love it even more.
The twisty atonal thing comes back in the coda, but Beethoven surprises us yet again: No waltz this time! That’s enough dancing!
The third movement of the Archduke Trio is an Andante Cantabile theme with variations. The theme is one of Beethoven’s entrancing hymns, and the four variations never let up on the spell. Whether what follows is a fifth variation or a coda, nobody really knows or cares.
The third movement goes straight into the Archduke Trio’s jubilant rondo finale, sometimes (as others have noticed) sounding very much like a piano concerto in the balance of the instruments, with very much of the same type of joy and exuberance of concerto finales.
“It would not be a stretch to imagine the Archduke as taking shape in Beethoven’s mind as an idealized portrait of the archduke himself, or a portrait of their relationship — from the sunny side of the picture.” (Jan Swafford, Beethoven, pp. 562–3)
What else was going on in the world in 1811?
One interesting connection was noted by violinist Brigid Coleridge (@BrigidColeridge) prior to a performance of the Archduke Trio by the Merz Trio earlier this year in New York City. She talked about how this music evoked for her the friendship between Beethoven and Archduke Rudolph, and she then related that to another testament to friendship in the same year: Jane Austen’s first published novel, “Sense & Sensibility.”
A character in Haruki Murakami’s “Kafka on the Shore” says of the Archduke Trio:
it’s the most refined of all Beethoven’s piano trios. He wrote it when he was forty, and never wrote another. He must have decided he’d reached the pinnacle in the genre.