Beethoven: Piano Trios (CD review)

Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Hess 47; Piano Trio in D Major, Kinsky/Halm Anhang3; Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Opus 63. The Beethoven Project Trio.  Cedille CDR 90000 118.

This Cedille disc is for Beethoven fans who want to hear everything the man might ever have written, for audiophiles who want to hear the best in sound reproduction, and for music lovers who simply want to hear some lovely tunes. In any case, the listener can't lose.

The Beethoven Project Trio are a Chicago-based ensemble formed in 2008 and comprised of George Lepauw, piano, Sang Mee Lee, violin, and Wendy Warner, cello. Their goal is to explore Beethoven's trios within the context of all the trio works that have come after them. However, they do not confine themselves entirely to Beethoven and have branched out into Brahms, Mozart, and Schubert. For the present historic recording, Mr. Lepauw plays a Fazioli concert grand, model F278; Ms. Lee plays a 1713 Cooper-Hakkert Stradivarius; and Ms. Warner plays a 1772 Giuseppe Gagliano, all on generous loan.

In the program, we get three Beethoven trios, all of them unique in their own way. Things begin with the Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in E-Flat Major, Hess 47, "an original arrangement by Beethoven himself, from his String Trio Opus 3," 1794. It is a single movement lasting about twelve minutes, lost and forgotten for quite a while and here receiving its world-première recording. It did not get a printing until 1920, and there is as yet no performance edition available (although the International Beethoven Project is preparing one for publication before the end of 2010). At any rate, the little work is brisk and sprightly and thoroughly delightful, at least in the hands of the Beethoven Project Trio, who play it as though they had been performing it all their lives.

Next comes the Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello in D Major, Kinksy/Halm Anhang 3, 1799. It is in two movements, an Allegro and a Rondo, of a little over six minutes each. The work seems a bit more demanding than Hess 47, and the Trio play it with great skill. But in actuality, two pages of the score were missing, reconstructed here by Robert McConnell and recorded in its present overhauled state for the first time. For a time scholars thought that Mozart might have written the piece, and maybe he did, but most authorities today attribute it to Beethoven. Its breezy, infectious Rondo is absolutely charming.

Finally, we have the Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello in E-Flat Major, Opus 63, from 1806, apparently a transcription by Beethoven from his own String Quintet Opus 4 of 1795, itself an arrangement of his earlier Wind Octet. Again, there has been some controversy over the years about whether the composer had anything at all to do with it. Present-day scholars, though, generally accept that Beethoven transcribed it himself, and the Beethoven Project Trio gave it its American première performance on March 1, 2009.

The Trio in E-Flat Major is in four movements and lasts a total of about thirty-four minutes. As in the other works, the Beethoven Project Trio are light and bright and deliver a glowing performance, with the Andante in particular lilting and graceful.

The Cedille audio engineers miked the Trio's three instruments fairly close-up, yet they are not in-your-face close. Recorded in 2009 at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, the sound is always warm and smooth while still displaying plenty of detail and air. What's more, the acoustic offers a radiant ambient glow that is most realistic and appealing.

JJP