Clarinet Trio in B flat major, Op.11

What inspired Beethoven to write a Trio in B flat for clarinet, cello and piano in 1797 or 1798 - when he had enjoyed such success with the more usual combination of violin, cello and piano in his three Trios Op.1 two or three years earlier - no one really knows. Another matter for conjecture is why he chose a popular song of the day, “Pria ch’io l’impegno” from Joseph Weigl’s opera L’Amor marinaro, as the theme of a set of variations in the last movement. The likely answer is that the work was commissioned by a clarinettist who not only admired Beethoven but who also had a special taste for that particular tune. Unwilling, however, to restrict its sales potential to clarinettists with special tastes, the composer also issued an alternative version with violin instead of clarinet - in which (no less entertaining) form it is being performed on this occasion.

Gerald Larner©

No one knows the name of the clarinettist who inspired Beethoven, who had enjoyed an early success in Vienna with his three Piano Trios, Op.1, to omit the violin in favour of the clarinet in his next Trio in 1797 or 1798. It must have been the same musician, however, who persuaded him to adopt a popular tune of the day, “Pria ch’io l’impegno” from Joseph Weigl’s opera L’Amor marinaro, as the theme of a set of variations in the last movement. Certainly, that movement is most entertainingly written for the instrument.

Although there is an alternative version of this work for the conventional piano trio, the opening of the Allegro con brio depends for its full effect on the cutting edge of the clarinet. Beethoven clearly valued the instrument for its lyrical qualities too: the expressive second subject, which is approached by way of a curious harmonic diversion on the piano, he awards not to the cello but to the clarinet. The cello has no access to the second-subject melody in the development either and in the recapitulation, much altered though it is in other ways, the second subject again goes to the clarinet without passing to the cello at any point.

The compensation for the cello is its responsibility in introducing the main theme of the Adagio in E flat major. If the clarinet seems to upstage the cello in its repeat of that theme it is only because the texture round it is so much more glamorously coloured by the other two instruments. The cutting edge of the clarinet proves useful again in the E flat minor middle section which so effectively offsets the reprise of the opening theme.

Whatever Beethoven thought of Weigl’s cheerful little tune, he treats it here with considerable resource and no little wit. A solo piano improvisation, a two-part invention for clarinet and cello, a display of authentic clarinet brilliance, a sombre change to B flat minor, a determined restoration of the major, a playful exchange of fragmented phrases between the three instruments, an emphatic reversion to the minor, a peculiar texture of quietly drawn melodic lines on cello and clarinet accompanied by a heavy left hand on the piano, an ingeniously scored canon first for piano and then for clarinet and cello: these are the nine variations that precede an Allegro closing section as provocative in its G major beginning as in its metrical contradictions.

No one knows why, having enjoyed some success with three Trios Op.1 for the usual combination of piano with violin and cello, Beethoven was inspired to omit the violin and make a special feature of the clarinet in his next Trio two or three years later. It is not entirely clear either why he chose a popular tune of the day, “Pria ch’io l’impegno” from Joseph Weigl’s opera L’Amor marinaro, as the theme of a set of variations in the last movement. The most likely explanation, offered by his pupil Carl Czerny, is that it was at the request of the clarinettist for whom Beethoven wrote the work. Just when this happened is something else we don’t know but, since L’Amor marinaro was first performed in October 1797 and the Clarinet Trio in B flat was published twelve months later, it must have been in late 1797 or early 1798.

Although there is an alternative version for the conventional piano trio, the opening of the Allegro con brio depends for its full effect on the cutting edge of the clarinet. Beethoven clearly valued the instrument for its lyrical qualities too: the expressive second subject, which is approached by way of a curious harmonic diversion on the piano, he awards not to the cello but to the clarinet, which has the further privilege of anticipating the Weigl tune in the closing theme of the exposition. The cello has no access to the second-subject melody in the development which, apart from an echo of the piano’s wayward approach to it at the beginning, is dominated by the more dramatic presence of the opening theme. In the recapitulation, much altered though it is in other ways, the second subject again goes to the clarinet without passing to the cello at any point.

The compensation for the cello is its responsibility in introducing the main theme (a close relation of the minuet movements in the Septet and the Piano Sonata, Op.49, No.2) of the Adagio in E flat major. If the clarinet seems to upstage the cello in its repeat of that theme it is only because the texture around it is so much more glamorously coloured by the other two instruments. The cutting edge of the clarinet proves useful again in the E flat minor middle section which so effectively offsets the reprise of the opening theme, where the cello and clarinet are now set against the decorative piano part in a finely poised balance of melody and counter-melody.

Whatever Beethoven thought of Weigl’s cheerful little tune – which is not easily resistible – he treats it here with considerable resource and wit. A solo piano improvisation, a two-part invention for clarinet and cello, a display of authentic clarinet brilliance, a sombre change to B flat minor, a determined restoration of the major, a playful exchange of fragmented phrases between the three instruments, an emphatic reversion to the minor, a peculiar texture of quietly drawn melodic lines on cello and clarinet accompanied by a heavy left hand on the piano, an ingeniously scored canon first for piano and then for clarinet and cello: these are the nine variations that precede an Allegro closing section as provocative in its G major beginning as in its metrical contradictions.