The Swiss Piano Trio has just completed their most significant recording project to date: that of the complete Beethoven Piano Trios for the German audite label. This project is revealing fascinating insights across the entire development of Beethoven’s musical language, from the astonishing three Trios Op. 1 from his early, Classical period, through his middle period, to which the Trios Op. 70 can be attributed, to the Archduke Trio Op. 97, marking the beginning of his late oeuvre.

The Swiss Piano Trio is going to perform the complete piano trios by Beethoven now in a cycle of four concerts with commentaries to the music.

Alongside the famous works, the Swiss Piano Trio are also performing the Trio op. 38, an original arrangement for piano trio of Beethoven’s Septet op. 20 as well as several variation works and some earlier trios written when Beethoven was still living in Bonn. You may book as an additional option also the Triple Concerto for Piano Trio and Orchestra op. 56, where Beethoven ingeniously employs the chamber formation of the piano trio as an ensemble of soloists in dialogue with the orchestra. The Swiss Piano Trio’s complete recording got great critical acclaim and awards in the international specialized press.

Rather than issuing the works in chronological order, as is the case very often, it is our philosophy to present diverse programmes, combining early and later works as well as the variations, creating exciting concerts, which allow the listener directly to dive into Beethoven’s different creative periods. Beethoven’s trios make up their own musical cosmos whose stylistic spectrum represents an enormous challenge to their interpreters. The early trios in the Classical style demand a much slimmer and more transparent tone than the almost symphonic Archduke Trio Op. 97 or the Trio, Op. 70 No 2, whose musical language already anticipates the Romantic style.

Carl Czerny’s Reminiscences of Beethoven (Vienna, 1842) has proved to be an inspiring treasure trove with regard to interpretation – in the chapter “Über den richtigen Vortrag der sämtlichen Beethoven’schen Werke für das Piano mit Begleitung” (On the correct performance of Beethoven’s complete works for piano with accompaniment), he comments on all the piano trios and adds suggestions for interpretation. As Beethoven’s pupil, and later also friend, Czerny had studied nearly all works for, and with, piano under the guidance of the composer and was thus also intimately familiar with the chamber works. His tempo markings, however, are surprising at times, and lead in some movements to results which show this wonderful music in a new light.

In this cycle the Swiss Piano Trio deliberately steer away from the encyclopaedic approach and instead concentrate on the pleasure and delight in Beethoven’s inexhaustible creativeness and his ever-fresh music.

You may book this unique Beethoven-Cycle of four concerts also as a performance within one weekend, an incredibly intense experience for the public!

Moreover, this cycle may be extended with the performance of the Triple Concerto op. 56 with orchestra.

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