Trio Cavatina

As if the designation “Opus 1, Number 1” were not resonant enough all by itself, this trio (along with its opus-mates) inspired in its earliest listeners the sort of praise that might have daunted a lesser genius than Ludwig van Beethoven.  Composer, pianist, and publisher Johann Baptist Cramer (1771-1858) heard a London performance of Opus 1 and declared, “This is the man who is to console us for the loss of Mozart.”
 
The “Trios, op. 1” did not spring fully-formed from Beethoven’s brow.  In Bonn in 1791, he was already presenting early versions of the three works.  When Count Ferdinand von Waldstein sent him to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn in October 1792, Beethoven carried with him the trios in progress as well as a letter of introduction from the count.  As implied by his nickname, "Papa" Joseph Haydn has a reputation as one of the more genial of geniuses, but clearly, Beethoven rubbed him the wrong way.  By the end of a year’s worth of tumultuous lessons, Haydn was fed up with the young upstart and passed him on to Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809).
 
It is said that in late 1793 or early 1794, Haydn was in attendance at a musical soirée at the home of Beethoven's patron, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, where early versions of Beethoven's three “Piano Trios op. 1” were performed.  The older master praised the first two trios but recommended to Beethoven that the third be withheld from the public.  Although Haydn would later insist that he wanted only to warn Beethoven that the public might not yet be ready for the particularly forward-looking “Trio No. 3,” relations between the two deteriorated from there.  Beethoven was certain that Haydn was being either jealous, malicious, or both.
 
Although these trios were far from Beethoven’s first compositions, publishing them in 1795 as “Opus 1” indicated that he considered them the official commencement of his composing career.  The “Trio in E-flat major, op. 1, no. 1” possesses a particularly Mozartean ring in its tonal wanderings and in the independent treatment of each voice.  One of Beethoven’s first scherzos, the third movement (marked “Allegro assai”) opens with a unison passage in C minor that launches an adventurous tour of keys.  Leaping over the interval of a tenth, the theme of the “Presto” finale threatened the propriety of 1795’s world of chamber music.

While serving briefly on the composition faculty of the Leipzig Conservatory, founded by his friend Felix Mendelssohn in 1843, Robert Schumann came into contact with the pedal piano for the first time.  Several varieties of the instrument were created during the 18th century, each using a different mechanism to fit a piano with an organ-like pedal board.  Although pedal pianos were sometimes used as substitutes for organ practice, no less a composer than Mozart had owned one and even improvised publically on it.  Schumann was so taken with it that he convinced Mendelssohn to offer pedal piano classes at the conservatory.
 
After leaving the Leipzig Conservatory and moving to Dresden in late 1844, Robert and Clara Schumann began intensive studies of counterpoint together in January 1845.  They rented a pedal attachment for their piano so as to practice playing organ, inspiring Robert to compose three works for the pedal piano:  “Six Canonic Etudes, op. 56;” “Four Sketches, op. 58;” and “Six Fugues on the Name B-A-C-H, op. 60.”  He dedicated the “Six Canonic Etudes” to his first piano teacher, Johann Gottfried Kuntzsch (1775-1855), who likely introduced Schumann to Bach.
 
Theodor Kirchner (born Neukirchen, Saxony, December 10, 1823; died Hamburg, September 18, 1903) was a student of Mendelssohn’s at the Leipzig Conservatory while Schumann taught there.  A well-respected keyboard player, Kirchner was also a prolific composer, particularly for piano.  Both Schumann and Brahms trusted Kirchner to make faithful chamber arrangements of their larger works.  Kirchner made this much more free arrangement of Schumann’s “Six Canonic Etudes, op. 56” for piano trio in 1888, more than two decades after the composer’s death..  Others also thought highly enough of these etudes to arrange them more accessibly, including Claude Debussy for two pianos and George Bizet for piano, four hands.  Owing much to Bach, the “Etude in C major” is a strict canon at the octave.  The remaining five etudes are much more reflective of Schumann’s individuality.