Beethoven’s ‘Archduke’ Trio, hailed as ‘a symphony for three musicians’

Often described as "a symphony for three musicians,” Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97 (Archduke), requires performers of stellar stature. That quality certainly applies to violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, pianist Yefim Bronfman and cellist Pablo Ferrández, hailed as a new, bona-fide supergroup by Carnegie Hall. 

The all-star trio reunites a pair of longtime musical friends: Anne-Sophie Mutter, the “undisputed queen of violin-playing” (The Times of London), and pianist Yefim Bronfman, who “pushes the boundaries of what’s possible on piano” (Seattle Times). Completing the ensemble is Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández, one of classical music’s rising stars and a Mutter protégé. Now on tour, with an SCP Chamber Music concert May 7 in Chicago, the three will perform a program of two outstanding piano trios by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

The Archduke Trio has been acclaimed as one of the finest achievements in its form and in classical chamber music in general. “The principal themes of the work attract immediate attention for their suppleness and cantabile character,“ according to the New Grove Dictionary of Music. ”The themes are linked together by a strong family likeness and thus engender a powerful sense of unity in the work as a whole.”

Written with Hapsburg nobleman Archduke Rudolf of Austria in mind, the trio was first performed in 2011, just two days after its completion, with the composer at the keyboard. The youngest of 12 children of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, Rudolf was also Beethoven’s only composition student. Beethoven once complained that the lessons interfered with his own composing; since the Archduke was one of his most important patrons, he kept that thought largely to himself. 

The work’s premiere marked Beethoven’s final concert appearance. A rehearsal for that concert was attended by noted violinist and composer Louis Spohr, who wrote: “On account of his deafness, there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist who had formerly been so greatly admired. In forte passages, the poor deaf man pounded on the keys until the strings jangled, and in piano, he played so softly that whole groups of notes were omitted, so that the music was unintelligible unless one could look into the pianoforte part. I was deeply saddened at so hard a fate.”

In a program for the Kaufman Arts Center in New York City, NPR/PBS host Rob Kapilow, a conductor, composer and pianist, crystallized the significance of the work: "Widely considered to be the greatest piano trio ever written, Beethoven’s Archduke Trio represents a defining, transformational moment in the history of Western music. A revolution in musical content, as well as in how it was commissioned and financed, it replaces the polite, private amateur world of chamber music with virtuosic public music of symphonic scope. Chamber music would never be the same."