Trio for two oboes and cor anglais
Beethoven every Friday: to mark his 250th birthday, we take a look at one of his works every week. Today it's the trio for two oboes and cor anglais in C major.
"These three are one." The anonymous reviewer in the Leipziger General Musical Newspaper cannot characterize this work, which was first published in print in 1806. And yet this Trio op. 87 for two oboes and cor anglais (together with the Variations on Mozart's "Là ci darem la mano" WoO 28) has remained a peripheral composition in the general perception to this day. It almost seems that the comparatively light, almost uncomplicated tone irritated and caused difficulties for our contemporaries against the background of what quickly became standard reception topoi: "Nowhere do you notice a disproportion, nowhere anything wanted or unnatural; therefore it provides the trio, With all the applied art, a pleasant, unclouded, if not high enjoyment. The limitations of the instruments and the simplicity of the three-part setting make it seem less than it is to some." - It almost reads like a promotional apology.
But one should not be deceived by the high opus number of this trio. Initially erroneously counted as "op. 29", it only appears in a list of works in 1819 without Beethoven's involvement. However, the composition had already been written around 1795 - and by no means as an occasional work. Rather, it is connected with the Teimer brothers' ensemble, which was very popular in Vienna at the time and also performed in public, for which Franz Anton Hoffmeister "concertizing trios" is said to have written. Furthermore, when the Schwarzenberg Harmoniemusik was dissolved in 1799, the archives contained further works for the three brothers by Johann Nepomuk Went, Joseph Triebensee, Franz Krommer and Anton Wranitzky, among others; Beethoven's four-movement trio was therefore only part of an existing repertoire for a unique (Viennese) special ensemble. Johann Ferdinand von Schönfeld reported in 1796 in his Yearbook of Musical Art for Vienna and Prague: "Who doesn't know these famous virtuosos on the oboe? They adorn our most prestigious academies. Their tone is mellifluous, and their art so excellent that some of our authors write for them. They are also masters on the English horn." Only a short time later, however, this formation came to an abrupt end when the brothers Franz and Johann Teimer died suddenly in May and August 1796.
Parallel to the first edition, Beethoven's composition was also published in 1806 in arrangements for two violins and viola as well as for piano and violin. Still a welcome addition to musical entertainment.
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