"Archduke" Trio, Kreutzer Sonata

Ludwig van Beethoven

Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals, Alfred Cortot

album cover

A Chamber Music All-Star Session

This is the chamber-music equivalent of the Three Tenors—a summit of megastars tackling key pieces in the repertoire. Just one difference: When this was recorded, between 1927 and 1929, these three were actually in their prime, and profoundly attuned to each other, having played together (initially for their own pleasure) for more than twenty years.

As a result, these versions of Beethoven's endlessly singing "Archduke" Trio, dedicated in 1811 to the composer's pupil Archduke Rudolph, is surprisingly elastic, with subtle lurches forward and passages where the three gently slow the tempo, as though guided by a single hand, to accentuate a particular phrase. This unity approaches almost paranormal levels in the second Scherzo movement of the "Archduke," when the three, in tandem, execute an extended crescendo not in one tempo, as it's written, but with several glancing millisecond pauses added for drama along the way.

For all the group cohesion, the mighty "Archduke" (more formally known as Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97), the gem of Beethoven's middle period, also highlights the contrasting personalities: Pianist Cortot brings a languid romanticism to everything he plays, and an elegance shared by his countryman Thibaud, who plays violin. The Catalan cellist Casals, meanwhile, infuses the music with a fiery animation; it's his gorgeously emphasized long tones that give the Andante third movement its anchor.

There are other treasures on this disc—including the only known Thibaud/Cortot recording of Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9 (the "Kreutzer") and a transfixing run through the cello/piano Magic Flute Variations, which finds Cortot surrounding the beefy cello lines with dainty, almost transparent rejoinders from the piano.

Genre: Classical
Released: 2002, Naxos
Key Tracks: All of them.
Another Interpretation: Beethoven Piano Trios, Vol. 2, Itzhak Perlman, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lynn Harrell
Next Stop: Felix Mendelssohn: Trio in D Minor, Thibaud, Cortot, Casals
After That: Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto, Pablo Casals, Prades Festival Orchestra (Eugene Ormandy, cond.)
Book Pages: 65–66