Comparison Recordings
Eugene Istomin, p; Isaac Stern, v; Leonard
Rose, vc. [ADD] Sony SM4K 46738
Trio Op 1 #3, Stuttgart Piano Trio Naxos
8.550947
I put on my
freshly washed I HATE BEETHOVEN
tee shirt and sat down to listen
to this disk. I managed to sneer
all the way through the Opus 1.
True, it was an interesting piece
of work, the stamp of the man’s
unique personality informing every
phrase. But all I could think of
was papa Haydn shaking his head
and marking it down as a C+. Awkward
and graceless, he probably thought,
and not a single joke. And
what of works by other composers
more worthy of being played, such
as (you’ve been waiting for this)
the Tovey String Trio in b, Op 1?
I even kept
sneering a little into the first
movement of the "Archduke,"
remembering the friend who once
told me his nine year old son’s
"favourite song" was the
Archduke Trio. Nine years old*.
About right, I said. Then, ho-hum,
another Beethoven scherzo. Then
these artists began playing the
slow movement, and the music reached
out and grabbed me by the throat
and threw me to the floor.
When the last
of the music died away there was
the ghost of Beethoven, looking
down at me. He read my tee shirt
and chuckled. "Got to you,
did I?" he said in his best
Yoda voice. The sound of his laughter
echoed after him as he walked away
through the wall.
Oh, all right, so I
had that coming.
Let me explain: This
variations movement is based on the
old baroque aria and doubles form. If
you want to hear it done really well,
listen to Bach’s BWV 989, "Aria
Variata alla maniera italiana."
You’ll have trouble doing that because
it’s not one of Bach’s most popular
works and there aren’t many recordings.
The Handel Eb Variations may
be closer to hand, but, unless they’re
very creatively embellished, they’re
no better than, maybe not even as good
as, Beethoven’s usual work. Considered
strictly as a composition, Beethoven
couldn’t handle this form at all. His
"doubles" are clumsy and obvious.
If you or I turned in work like this
today in a conservatory we’d get no
better than C minus. (Go ahead, try
it, some enterprising music student.
See what it gets you.) But these performers
find music here that no one else does.
One doesn’t expect to hear playing of
this quality, of this intensity, in
these modern times, nay one doesn’t
expect to hear playing like this after
about 1937, the end of the golden age
of great chamber playing.
The Stern/Istomin/Rose
trio have impeccable chamber music credentials
singly and collectively. Violinist Stern
has a virtual cult following, Istomin
was among other things a personal friend
of Casals and his family, and Rose,
in an age that contained Casals, produced
a stunning recording of the Grieg Cello
Sonata which is still a classic,
even in the age of Starker, Harrell
and Ma. In both trios they achieve a
fine adolescent swagger in the brighter
movements, but run off the Archduke
variations very clearly, exposing all
the facile shallowness one can find
there. The Stuttgart Piano Trio play
dynamically and with authority, dignity,
even solemnity, an approach which works
quite well, although they hardly begin
to approach the intensity of the Kempf
recording.
But Freddy Kempf and
his friends look for something better
and they find it, and if they can convince
me — and they do — they could convince
a rock. This is the finest Beethoven
chamber playing I’ve ever heard, certainly
the finest "Archduke" and
even more important, the finest Op 1,
#3, with whose variations movement they
also work miracles. They have taken
this music, a step below the top, and
taken it over the top by sheer artistry,
stunning musicianship, and personal
conviction.
The genius of Bach,
Mozart and Brahms is expressed in the
perfect balance of their styles. Schubert,
Ravel, and Debussy express their genius
through understatement. With Telemann,
Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Beethoven,
genius expresses itself through overstatement.**
Even in this early Opus 1 trio one hears
Beethoven’s imitation of his models
and his almost angry impatience at that
imitation even as he realises why he
must do it. In Beethoven’s middle period
some of his overstatements were experimental
and not fully successful, but this quality
was crystallised perfectly in his introduction
of the chorus into the last movement
of the Ninth Symphony, a gesture that
was not fully appreciated for 150 years.
It was in his late works that the sense
of mastery was finally coupled with
impetuosity to produce many, but not
all, of his masterpieces, such as this
work from 1811.
These SACD surround
tracks reproduce the sound with overwhelming
immediacy.
Was it on a
promontory overlooking the sea at
sunset, or a rock ledge in a trackless
desert at moonrise? My eyes, filled
with tears could not see clearly
and I cannot recall. I set the faggots
alight and as the fire rose up,
I threw my I HATE BEETHOVEN
tee shirt upon the flames and watched
as the letters one by one darkened,
curled, and disappeared. As the
smoke rose up to heaven a hole in
the sky appeared and I could hear
his laughter again. "Really
got to you, did I? You should hear
what I’m writing now. Even Bach
likes some of it!"
*The young Donald Francis
Tovey liked it too because it is clearly
one of the models for the first movement
of his Cello Sonata Op. 4, perhaps
his finest single work.
**As with any generalisation
like this, the interest lies largely
in the exceptions, such as Liszt’s astonishingly
understated late piano music, some of
his finest. However with Liszt there
was something of a flamboyant gesture
even about his understatement.
Paul Shoemaker
Kempf Trio: Freddy Kempf, piano; Pierre Bensaid,
violin; Alexander Chaushian, cello. 
BIS
SACD-1172 [71.28] 
