Presents
Ludwig
van Beethoven
Symphony No.2 in D Major,
Op.36
Arranged for Violin, Violoncello and Piano
What???
Who would do such a thing and why?? Hold your horses....Beethoven himself arranged his Symphony No.2 for Piano Trio. For the first half of the 19th century, arranging large scale works for
chamber music ensembles was a common practice. Why? Because after the French
Revolution, European governments were highly suspicious of large gatherings of
men and discouraged them by means of police surveillance, fearing revolutionary
plotting. And, of course, it took a large group of men to rehearse and perform a
symphony. Add to this that a huge new market for chamber music came into
existence about this time as home music making became one of the most popular
pastimes for the emerging bourgeois classes of Western Europe. Both composers
and publishers, with an eye toward profits, made a regular practice of having
chamber music arrangements made of large scale works by well-known
composers. Beethoven was disappointed at the reception his second symphony,
composed in 1802, received and noticed that it was rarely performed. Added to
this was the offer made by the Bureau des arts et d'Industrie a prominent Vienna
publisher for a chamber music arrangement of the symphony, led to him producing
the trio.
You might think that turning a
symphony into a piano trio would be a hopeless task with the result being highly
unsatisfactory, but you would be wrong, especially when the arranger was
Beethoven himself. What he produced is truly amazing and in someways more
impressive than the symphony itself. That this is so is testified to by the fact
that of all of his piano trios, this one was one of the most frequently
performed right up until the First World War when the practice of playing large
works in chamber music arrangement was no longer popular.
Not readily available, we are
pleased to offer it in a modern edition and believe both professionals and
amateurs will find it a very satsifying work. And in the concert hall, it is
sure to make a strong impression.
Parts:
$29.95
