ii. Adagio ma non tanto e cantabile (key: E major)
Itzhak Perlman, violin; Pinchas Zukerman, viola; Lynn Harrell, cello. EMI, recorded live at the 92nd Street Y, New York City, June 6-7, 1990
BEETHOVEN: String Trio in D, Op. 9, No. 2:
ii. Andante quasi allegretto (key: D minor)
Itzhak Perlman, violin; Pinchas Zukerman, viola; Lynn Harrell, cello
BEETHOVEN: String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3:
ii. Adagio con espressione (key: C major)
Itzhak Perlman, violin; Pinchas Zukerman, viola; Lynn Harrell, cello
"[These three] extraordinary slow movements in the key of E major [from the Piano Trio in G, Op. 1, No. 2; the String Trio in G, Op. 9, No. 1; and the String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2] . . . share an almost out-of-body quality, and it’s inspiring to wonder what this beautiful tonality must have meant to Beethoven."by Ken-- David Finckel, in "Making the most out of chamber music coaching," from The Strad newsletter, Jan. 21, 2025
The David Finckel quote, of course, is a pickup from last week's first installment of "'Out-of-body' Beethoven?," wherein we took advantage of this linkage of three Beethoven slow movements in E major, offered as an example of the kind of musical context he can offer to students as part of one of his most enjoyed yet enormously complex activities: coaching chamber music. I thought it would be fun as well as instructive to listen to David F.'s three E major slow movements -- along with two stringless ones I added, from the Op. 90 and Op. 109 Piano Sonatas.
For me there was no question that David F.'s trio of slow movements have something special in common. One thing I wanted to do was listen to what assorted performers have heard in them, to get some idea of how we might think about that special "E major quality." I also wanted to hear those movements in the context of the works they're part of, to get a sense of the kinds of use Beethoven made of that special quality (or qualities). And we're still going to attempt to do both of those things.
I'm still plugging away at that next step. Meanwhile I thought it would be interesting just to set one of those E major movements against alongside some comparable slow movements, which is what we've done above. The G major Trio, Op. 9, No. 1, is part of a set of three, and above we've heard the same performers play the slow movements of all three.
I suspect that for many of us, even the most confirmed Beethoven-philes, the string trios don't figure prominently in our listening. I'm always reminded when I have occasion to return to them (the three trios of Op. 9 were preceded by a six-movement Trio in E-flat, Op. 3, and the five-movement Serenade in D, Op. 8), I'm reminded that they're not only potentially more entertaining but more substantial than I remembered. It's generally pointed out that the trios were in some sense a preparation for the creative force that Beethoven would unleash in the Op. 18 set of six string quartets. Already I think it's fair to say that the three slow movements of Op. 9 are pretty gorgeous.
If the Adagio ma non tanto e cantabile of Op. 9, No. 1 were in E minor, it would be in the parallel minor key of the first movement's G major, but it's not in E minor, it's in E major. (We have this same relationship in the Op. 1, No. 2 Piano Trio.) In the remaining trios the slow movement is in the parallel minor or major of the first. The nervous tension of the D minor of Op. 9, No. 2 is a striking contrast to the D major of the first movement, while the C major of the harmonically ambiguous Adagio con espressione of Op. 9, No. 3 is about as un-C-majory a C major as I can think of.
AS A REMINDER, HERE ARE THE PERFORMANCES WE HEARD OF THE OP. 9, NO. 1 "ADAGIO MA NON TANTO E CANTABILE"
