Louis Spohr, a violinist of world renown and highly respected composer of operas, oratorios, symphonies, concerts, songs and chamber music in almost all occupations, famous musician and teacher of more than 200 musicians wrote, five trios for piano, violin and cello. This work was written relatively late. Spohr was indeed familiar with the music of the mother since early childhood with the piano, the five-year-old but had a violin as the instrument requires appropriate to him. There were also personal experiences with the harp during the Brunswick school and then especially in marriage with the material and harpist Dorette Scheidler capable pianist (1787-1834). Violin and harp remained attractive for the early Romantics. The valuable sonatas for harp and violin show as well as other solo and chamber music for harp. Only after 1820, the Dorette harp had to give up for health reasons and subsequently only appeared as a pianist, works created for the instrument. After 1836, during the second marriage to Marianne Pfeiffer (1807-1892), the "very complete" piano playing, felt excited to Spohr other works, like five also one of the trio. The genus piano trio - in the "classic" cast for piano, violin and cello - really was not until the second half of the 18th Century emerged: trios by Haydn and Mozart, and a generation later by Beethoven and Schubert, regarded as the first highlights. Louis Spohr's trio meet in the cast and form the classic pattern: a sonata as a header record followed by a slower and faster internal movement - running the latter as a scherzo or Menuetto and Trio - and a faster conclusion, usually in sonata form. Scattered work and obbligato accompaniment, as they have been serious for the Viennese classical composing as Standard, there are are just as smoothly as applied inventive and merged the sentences by refined combination of the thematic material in large closed form. Spohr was to be envied "the ability, the whole is always formed of a piece to appear. The Specification, the harmonic foundations of each piece of music are concerned by it with that mathematical certainty, that make the piece more easily clear, and in spite of the ever-changing shadows that fly around his melodies, that transparency and clarity, what the last consequent successor will always be recognizable by Mozart, "we read in a review of the general musical newspaper.
Louis Spohr, Daguerreotype 1840 This "changing shadows that are always new lighting of the subjects reached Spohr, after HJ Moser " greatest Low German melody between Prince Wizlav of complaints and John Brahms, "flowing harmonies and a preference for syncope and hemiolenartige formations, through consistent disguise of the metric and harmonic emphasis. Even the ever-changing patterns of movement and discreet always only minimally modified or diminution variants bear if the be chosen again and again demanded "speedy" tempos, to this effect - by the composer in a letter - at least for its outer movements and scherzi. In the passages Spohr works primarily with the material of the first subject. There are very subtle nuances with which he controls the course of the sentences - by driving the pulse of a motion or take back, such as eighth-transformed into a triplet , also in that he syncope, which is a metric accent, also a harmonic touches - and thus unnoticed even reach distant keys. Particularly attractive are the internal rates: rhythmic variety and imaginative use of the three instruments can be for those entirely new era, "unusual" sounds arise.
violin and cello are musically and technically equivalent required. Spohr was, after all - in addition to Paganini of the most important violinists of his era and in Nicholas Hase (1788-1842), his solo cello and quartet langiährigen comrades, he was an artist available to the outstanding work could. Spohr's eminent violin skills and knowledge proves to stringy concerns reflected in the piano trio. He uses all the sound possibilities and combinations, the entire range of the violin and cello, the extremely low and high altitudes, the sounds of una-corda and pizzicato . unison, octave and third-parallel, parallel staccato runs and other virtuoso technical difficulties but always the result of thematic work and never an end in itself.
Spohr continues with its five trios of Beethoven began a development to merge the three instruments and four sets of thematic work and mutual penetration into one. In contrast the piano trios of a generation younger, Chopin (1828), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1839 and 1845, the second Grand Trio, Op 66 is dedicated to Spohr), Robert Schumann (from 1847) and Niels W. Gade (1853 and 1863). In their trio dominated the piano - even the "moderate piano" invention of the issues hindering the merger. Spohr are probably much closer to the less developed later and recorded trios by Brahms.
Louis Spohr, before 1840, gilt, according to an alabaster relief from Gustav Kaupert Trio No. 1 in E minor, Op 119
with the only the title page of the first piano trios a dedication: the "donee" Caroline is from Malsburg, born of Dubuys (1785-1863). This friend of Spohr family since 1807, experienced painter and pianist, patron of talented young people were penniless, in 1840 the suggestion the composition of the first piano trio. The first edition appeared in 1842 when Julius Schuberth in Hamburg and was created by Robert Schumann in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik very positive reviews. Also appreciated Mendelssohn, Moscheles and Wagner it very much.
Trio No. 2 in F major, Op 123
Even before the great public success of the first trio was the second completed in the spring of 1842 in Kassel; Schuberth in Hamburg moved there a year later as well. In discussing the first edition of the Universal musical newspaper we read this: "To the top ... We provide: L. Spohr 's op 123 ... Is the piano voice is not always convenient, so overcomes one like this but for such a lovely, lovely music, for so masterful work. As for attacks, friends, and refreshes you. Spohr is not speakers for a long time seemed so intimate and young, as was in the second trio. "
Trio No. 3 in A minor, Op 124
Spohr's third piano trio just months after the second in the autumn of 1842, 1843 brought Schuberth it to market. Of all five of this trio is the greatest challenge to the position of the cellist technology - even with the violin voice crossings occur.
Louis Spohr, portrait drawing, 1859 Trio No. 4 in B flat major, Op 133
His fourth, completed in Kassel begun Trio Spohr in the summer of 1846 in Carlsbad . During the journey he could in a quickly arranged to introduce music part of his student Eduard reason Meiningen . A year later it also appeared on Schuberth in Hamburg. Despite its dense texture and expressed temperament - the last sentence has been called "Carlsbad bubble rate" - it had much less success than the earlier works of this genre. Only in England there was much applause. In this trio is different from Spohr also in details of the familiar form: the head set has no repeated exposure, the internal records are mixed up - with a Menuetto da capo FORMULATED follows the slow movement - and the conclusion is a combination of rondo and sonata form.
Trio No. 5 in G minor, Op 142
also the last, in October 1849 piano trio brought out Schuberth 1852nd In this work, the rates of most substantive relationship are clamped together. The first theme of the first movement, Allegro vivace, already containing the second, to B-flat major turned and provided with a quiet eighth-note accompaniment, it gets a very different character and serves as a secondary theme, as in b minor clouded variant, Spohr the same Contrast gained again in question - the detailed work begins during the exposure.
The Spohr Monument in Kassel all piano trios Louis Spohr's are on the title pages of first editions Although described as a "Trio Concertante," which means in this connection, however, no concertante piano, but reasoned, as observes an employee of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 1844, special rights "to the technicians. . ... Must be that virtuoso, if they are to meet the required effect, "In this critical appraisal of the third trio we read further:" Scherzo shows ... in a trio ... in the Clavierstimmen quite violin regular passages to be completed in rapid tempo run is difficult to clean are, for the left hand, which usually has only duplications, is Simplification is possible easy and advisable ... The trio is ... hard to play, and for all participants, the violinist in Spohr have's category to be inaugurated exactly "The reviewer keeps the piano part for" heavier than Thalberg or Chopin to play, as is well known. avenges Spohr every little impurity in the whole too hard. "Octave-doubled Terzengänge the piano, octave, third and Sextenparallelen, not just the piano, but also with one or two strings, sixteenth and triplet figures in a high, solid grip and continuous change of the movement pattern to make the piano part of the trio sometimes tedious. Contemporaries complained against the hairy " Piano part, "but again and again - Hans von Bülow blamed even much was" not a vista to bring out "- to emphasize, however, always that each performer and listener, who is seriously on this - not easily accessible - matches compositions will be fully compensated . Because no doubt they are among the most valuable works of this kind from the first half of the last century.
Source: Frank Rinck, in the booklet (abridged)
TRACKLIST
Louis Spohr (1784-1859) Complete Piano Trios
CD 1
Piano Trio No. 1 in E minor at. 119 36'06
[1] Moderato 11'39
[2] Larghetto 7'17
[3] Scherzo 7'06
[4] Final. Vivace Piano Trio No. 10'03
. 2 in F major on. 123 36'40
[5] Allegro 13'32
[6] Larghetto 7'26
[7] Scherzo 5'05
[8] Final. Vivace 10'36
TT: 73'15 CD 2
Piano Trio No.. 3 in A minor at. 124 35'08
[1] Allegro moderato 10'22
[2] Andante with variations 10'08
[3] Scherzo 6'55
[4] Final. Presto 7'43
Piano Trio No. 4 in B major, Op. 133 27'30
[5] Allegro 8'42
[6] Menuetto 5'55
[7] Shortly Adagio 7'11
[8] Final. Presto 5'41
TT: 63'07 CD 3
Piano Trio No. 5 in G minor, Op. 142 31'09
[1] Allegro vivace 10'15
[2] Adagio 6'21
[3] Scherzo 6'33
[4] Final. Allegro molto 8'01
TT: 31'09 Beethoven Trio Ravensburg
Inge-Susann Römhild , Piano
Gröner Ulrich, Susanne Eychmüller
Violin, Violoncello
Under the auspices of the International Louis Spohr Society Kassel
Recording: 8 to 12 November 1993, 8-11 February 1994, Radio Bremen Saal Send
Recording Supervisor: Andreas Heintzeler
Recording Engineer: Frauke Schulz
(P) 1995 DDD
Johannes Vermeer of Delft: Die Painting to 1665/1666, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Gemäldegalerie, inv GG_9128 Jan Vermeer's "Art of Painting" at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
What a work of art makes a classic? What magic ingredients are the ones about the "Mona Lisa" to make a public magnet, in front of the stand still long queues until they, too, look through the bulletproof glass allowed? Well, "The Art of Painting" by Jan Vermeer is not displayed behind bulletproof glass, and usually form in front of him, no queues, at least not in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Nevertheless, there is a justly famous work, the appeal remains undiminished. So what does it mean? In contrast to the "Mona Lisa" of Leonardo da Vinci, the mystery of the identities of those portrayed in the allegory of "painting" of relatively peripheral role seems to be: not that it failed to run the last 150 years would have suspected - - for obvious reasons it could be shown in the painter and his model act is a self-portrait of Vermeer ("Two mirror theory") and a portrait of his wife or his daughter. This one has. But what it does great when the artist himself has confessed to his allegory of painting model? In contrast to the "Mona Lisa" is missing the "painting" but also a legend-like reception history, were sealed in which some of the young woman in the portrait vice. Even the theft of the "Mona Lisa" in 1911 and two assassination attempts makes headlines.
None of this had to be chaste, "painting" to endure. The resulting image was about 1666/68 until the death of its creator in his studio, and served well as a showpiece for bravura. After the bailout by the artist's widow was lost trace of him - until the end of the 18th Century in Vienna showed up again, but with an attribution to Pieter de Hooch . 1804, the "painting" with the estate of Gottfried van Swieten , the son of the physician of "Empress Maria Theresa, together auctioned. Johann Rudolf Graf Czernin bought the painting in 1813 at the silly price of 50 guilders - and has never learned what a bargain he had made there. He died in 1845, some 15 years before two specialists the painting as a work of Jan Vermeer identified: The French art critic and collector Théophile Thoré , also known under the alias Willem citizens, and the German Gustav Friedrich Waagen , director of the Berliner Gemäldegalerie and founder of art history as a discipline, have discovered in 1860 the true identity of the painter.
then went off the guesswork, not least to the basic question: What is it about? But also: Is it Clio, the muse of history, or Fama, the herald of fame? And why the wall map shows the Netherlands before their division in 1648? Only Jacob Burckhardt not trust the magic of the image. He had nothing good to Vermeer and abused the young woman in blue dress as "his famous, soulless goose." In Kunsthistorisches Museum it now presents a picture after extensive technological investigations, together with objects, archives and documentation. To this end, the curators Sabine Penot and Elke Oberthaler filled an entire room: Here is a trumpet from the 17 century to see, as a brass chandelier Mechelen . Particular attention is paid to the reconstruction of though clearly identifiable, but in no instance more completely preserved map on the back wall of Vermeer is portrayed studio - a bacchanal for Kartografiehistoriker. Painting materials of the 17th Century, among microscope images of the paint layer. A plaster cast of the "Apollo Belvedere" suggests that the recumbent "mask" in the image as a piece of such casting could be - and thus supports the interpretation of the woman as the muse Clio, like all the Muses was assigned to the god Apollo.
With the help of an optical device examines the question of whether such tools as Vermeer the camera obscura has served. The blur in the foreground are known effects of this forerunner of the camera, but it is proven yet. The final section with highlights of the image in art since the modern age, with at least Sun glamorous contributors such as Salvador Dali and Peter Greenaway, is unfortunately more of an appendix than an epilogue.
Among the great strengths of the exhibition and catalog include summaries of previous discussions on issues of research on the "painting" and the update by the latest results. Also on the 2009 (re-) introduced the request of the family Czernin restitution is made. The desire of the heirs of Jaromir Czernin, of the acquired Adolf Hitler, the picture in 1940 planned to be "Führer Museum" in Linz, Austria (until after the war came the image, initially for storage, to the Kunsthistorisches Museum), appears to current knowledge, however, only limited promising : The "painting" was indeed not expropriated, but bought by 1.65 million marks plus tax bonus, which is in the opinion of the heirs, but under duress. The request is under review by the Commission for Provenance Research. But while a Decision on restitution this year can be expected, other questions will probably never be clarified: What so fascinated with this picture? Is it the background figure of the painter, the us - if it should be a self-portrait - a view denied on his face? Is it the mystery of the eyelids drooping dressed as Clio model? Or the many, infinitely skillfully reproduced, illusionist details? Is it the play of light? The perfectly balanced composition? Or all? In any case, Sabine Penot and Elke Oberthaler managed an exhibition in which information and Aura hold perfectly balanced. The quasi from the picture in the room turned-Frida Kahlo Vermeer and strengthened efforts to illusionism and feel, without the mystery of the "painting" to touch her impenetrable mystery even. It is as if one could somehow still take the offered seat in the picture. And listening to the third party in the alliance are secretive.
Source: Andrea Winklbauer: "His well-known, soulless goose", in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of 19 February 2010
Kunsthistorisches Museum € 29.90.
Links to Louis Spohr
(like the loving tribute by his descendants
Steffen ), I have already published in my post his double quartets . But there is a supplement, namely the (still under construction) side of the "International Louis Spohr Society" (Louis Spohr Academy - archive / research center / museum of the history of violin playing).
CD Info & Scans (tracklist, covers, Booklet, Bonus Pictures), 42 MB
Spohr - Piano Trios INFO.rar
Read the file "Download links.txt" for links to the Ape + Cue + Log Files
Ferdinand Ries (engraving by Charles Picart, probably for their own drawing, 1824) 
John Ferneley Jun. (1815-1862): A Lady 
Claude Lorraine Ferneley (1822-1892): Dragon and Black Prince in a Landscape 1852 
Buy CD at JPC.de 
and especially as documents of his early, more experimental style. The music research has shown that the three quartets 415th structurally modeled on the three violin sonatas KV 296, 379 and 380 followed by Mozart and the three piano concertos K. 413, 414, It is, therefore, early works, which are highly interesting as evidence of a learning process. The most obvious weakness of this music is the lack of a 
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet for piano, violin, viola, cello (in E flat major, D major, C major), WoO 36 
If the first quartet immediately been successful, it is not true for the second, some found a bit boring. The shadow of Haydn and Schubert permeate this work, the Poco adagio, as Joachim said, ambiguous emotions carries within itself. As with the previous quartet, it does - with less distinctive rhythm - with a Rondo in the Hungarian style. 
Johannes Brahms, Photography, Visit formats, sl, 1853, 6.3 x 10.3 cm, image size: 5.7 x 9.0 cm 
consider that began in 1798 with op 18th But they are all delightful works, each with strong individual character. 
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1801 - engraving from Johann Joseph Neidl after a drawing by Ernst Gandolph Stainhauser of good Berg (1766-1805), Beethoven-Haus Bonn, B 2125 
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1802 - ivory miniature by Christian Horneman (1765-1844) Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Collection HC Bodmer, HCB Bi 1 
Jeanne Françoise Julie 
Source: Adelaide Steinfeldt (1998) to FemBio, the website of Frauen.Biographieforschung 
