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Sunday, October 7, 2012

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

Seeing a "Ghost."  One of the greatest Beethoven pieces in one of the greatest videos ever.  Zukerman, Barenboim, du Pre.  Enough said.

1 comment:

Laurence Glavin said...

lyinnyt 14The Piano Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano seems to bring out the best in many composers. Beethoven composed two other fine pieces in this genre: the Opus number 70, of which the "Ghost" is one of the two that share it contains another beautiful piece(if it were the only Trio in this Opus number, would that number be Wholly Ghost?). Then there's the even more frequently performed "Archduke Trio". Schubert's two pieces in the Piano Trio form are wonderful too. And Brahms left the world some fine traditional Piano Trios plus one memorable piece for Piano, Cello and French Horn. In the Twentieth Century, Ravel and Ives weighed in with excellent Trios withe same perfornming forces as the "Ghost".. So it's a little odd that LvB seems to have fallen short of his usual standards with a Concerto for Piano Trio and Orchestra. Perhaps the intimacy of chamber music goes away if you have to add orchestral writing, especially if you have three instruments playing off one another. Brahms solved the problem by writing a multiple concerto by stopping at two.