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Ludwig van Beethoven - Triple Concerto, Op. 56

Further Information

• Beethoven's Triple Concerto is a hybrid of the rich harmonies of the early Romantic Era and the delicate precision of the Baroque concerto grosso. In the latter genre, an eighteenth century composer such as Bach or Handel would produce a work for orchestra with several soloists, and would structure the piece so that the melodies alternated between the orchestra and the solo group, known as the "concertino." The orchestra would introduce a theme, and the concertino group would elaborate upon it. This is exactly what happens in Bach's Brandenburg Concerti.

  Yet in the Classical Era of the late eighteenth century, the concerto grosso fell out of favor, and though hundreds of concerti emerged from this time, nearly all were for a single solo instrument. Beethoven, too, wrote mostly solo concerti, with this one exception, in which he seems to flash back to his early studies of Handel's compositions. He does not trouble himself to retrieve the instrumental delicacy of his model. Beethoven had little use for Baroque-style airiness, but the interplay of multiple soloists and orchestra seems to have held his interest, and though his concertino writing is far more expansive than Handel would have allowed, it gives modern listeners an intriguing glimpse of how a master may choose to combine the best elements of different eras.

  The solo group in the Triple Concerto is comprised of a piano, a violin, and a cello. This exact combination of instruments is known, in chamber music circles, as a piano trio. It is a highly popular genre, used to good effect by Haydn, Mozart, and numerous other composers. By 1803, when Beethoven began the Triple Concerto, he had already completed several piano trios, as well as sonatas for violin and piano, and sonatas for cello and piano. He had learned to balance the different timbres of the three solo instruments, and now set himself the task of combining those timbres with a full orchestra. This familiarity with the three instruments no doubt served him well, as in the extensive concertino sections, he fully exploits the various instruments' distinct personalities.

  It is often said that this concerto was intended for Beethoven's young piano student, the Archduke Rudolf, youngest brother of the Austrian emperor. According to the composer's sometime friend, Anton Schindler, the piano part was kept simple so as to suit the limits of the twenty-year-old Archduke's abilities. However, the piano part is not, in fact, a particularly easy one, and it has always seemed unlikely that the young nobleman would have been able to wrap his fingers around it. Moreover, recent research has indicated that Beethoven and Rudolf may have not become associated until shortly before the work's premiere in May of 1808. Yet on August 26, 1804, Beethoven included the Triple Concerto on a list of compositions, including the Waldstein Sonata and the Eroica Symphony, that he offered to the publisher Breitkopf and H�rtel. If the concerto was in a publishable condition four years before the two men became acquainted, any intention that Rudolf might play the piece could only have been an afterthought. Since Schindler has been shown in other instances to possess a somewhat creative memory, and since no documentary evidence, such as a program from the premiere, has survived, the story must be regarded as an interesting possibility that cannot be proven.