Van Baerle Trio, Residentie Orkest The Hague & Jan Willem de Vriend – Complete Works for Piano Trio Vol. 5 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Van Baerle Trio, Residentie Orkest The Hague & Jan Willem de Vriend – Complete Works for Piano Trio Vol. 5 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:13:13 minutes | 653 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

In 1799, after having made a name for himself with major compositions in the genres of the piano trio, piano sonata, violin sonata, and string quartet, but before finishing his first symphony, Beethoven wrote a work for mixed strings and winds. This piece, the Septet op. 20, would become one of his most popular compositions, with a large number of arrangements, including the one for piano trio on this disc. The form is clearly related to the divertimenti by Mozart, with six movements that alternate fast and slow tempos.

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Van Baerle Trio – Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios Vol. 3 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Van Baerle Trio – Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios Vol. 3 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:18 minutes | 640 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

The year 1808 was a period of superlative productivity for Beethoven: In the midst of all this, Beethoven somehow found the time and energy to compose two major piano trios. They were completed while Beethoven was living with Countess Marie Erdödy, to whom the trios were also dedicated. Some previous piano trios were rather lengthy affairs with pretentions to the symphonic repertoire, but the opening movement of Op. 70 No. 1immediately lets the listener know that this time, things are different. The piece starts seemingly in medias res with a tempestuous figure in all three instruments at the same time. The second movement is the one that gave the trio its nickname ‘ghost’. Carl Czerny, Beethoven’s student, seems to have been the first to use this name. According to him, the movement ‘resembles an appearance from the underworld. One could think not inappropriately of the first appearance of the ghost in Hamlet’. Superficially, the sibling of the ‘Ghost’ may seem closer to Haydn and Mozart in style. For a long time, the Variations Op. 44 were known as ‘Variations on an Original Theme’, as the first publication did not name the theme. It has since been identified as a theme by Dittersdorf. The variations were presumably written in 1792 and published in 1804, when various other early works were being offered to publishers.

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Van Baerle Trio – Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios Vol. 2 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Van Baerle Trio – Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios Vol. 2 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:35 minutes | 632 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

Chamber music arrangements of symphonies were very common in the late 18th and early 19th century, and it is probably true that a large proportion of the people who were familiar with the symphonic repertoire at the time were so because of them. The Second Symphony is the only one for which Beethoven himself produced an arrangement, although there is evidence that his student Ferdinand Ries did the bulk of the work, with Beethoven adding the finishing touches.

Of the three piano trios published under op. 1, the second announces its pretentions to the symphonic genre earlier than its siblings and has several common points with the Second Symphony that was written ten years later.

The Allegretto in E-flat, Hess 48, probably was one of the first works for piano trio that Beethoven wrote, dating back to the early 1790s. Its form is a short, but humorous conversation between three different instruments.

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Van Baerle Trio – Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios, Vol. 1 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Van Baerle Trio – Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios, Vol. 1 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:19:48 minutes | 687 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

Beethoven’s primary reason for settling in Vienna in 1792 was to study with Joseph Haydn, who at the time was widely considered the greatest living composer. Beethoven’s three Piano Trios op. 1 were the first compositions that he deemed important enough to give an opus number. They were dedicated to Prince Karl Lichnowsky, a patron of Beethoven in whose house he lived for some time. According to Beethoven’s lifelong friend Ferdinand Ries, Haydn was complimentary about the set of trios. The trios combine various elements that would have been familiar to Beethoven’s contemporaries. Less familiar, however, would be the fact that the trios contain four movements rather than the three that had been traditional in this genre. Although changes from major to minor had been common in the music of previous generations, where they would normally apply to just the last chord, Beethoven employs this technique more extensively here than was probably common at that time.

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Saint-Saens, Loevendie, Ravel – Piano Trios – Van Baerle Trio (2012) [Official Digital Download DSF DSD64/2.82MHz]

Saint-Saens, Loevendie, Ravel – Piano Trios – Van Baerle Trio (2012)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:06:17 minutes | 2,62 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © Etcetera Records
Recorded: Philipshall, Eindhoven, NL, 19-21 August 2011

The members of the Van Baerle Trio met each other as students at the Amsterdam Conservatory. From the beginning they were coached by Dmitri Ferschtman, and followed lessons and master classes with a.o. Willem Brons, Ana Chumachenco, Mark Lubotsky and the Parkanyi Quartet. Most crucial for the development of the trio was their meeting with Menahem Pressler, who follows the trio since 2008. The Van Baerle Trio is a multiple prize winner on national and international competitions – in April 2011 the trio was awarded the 1st Prize, the Audience Prize and 2 special prizes at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition, and one month later the trio won the Vriendenkrans Competition, where they were awarded both the Radio 4 “Talent of the Year” Award and the Audience Prize. In March 2011 the Van Baerle Trio made a successful tour in the Netherlands, acclaimed both by audiences and critics, and made their Concertgebouw debut the same month. The trio is a regular guest on the Dutch radio and television, and participated at international festivals in the Netherlands and in France. Recently, the Van Baerle Trio was guest at the radio programme of France Musique “Concert de midi et demi, jeunes interprètes”

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