The Trio in B flat Op.11 for clarinet, cello and piano is one of Beethoven’s least-serious works. By 1798 he had settled in Vienna and had become so successful as a composer that the majority of his works were being written in response to commissions. A couple of years later Beethoven admitted that he had been receiving more commissions than he could fulfil.

The scoring is very unusual and although Beethoven may not have divined the soul of the clarinet with the unerring instinct of Mozart, the alternative version that Beethoven made for violin – a shrewd piece of salesmanship – is less colourful.

The unison opening of the first movement is arresting and the approach to the second theme is also striking, recalling as it does a comparable passage in Haydn’s Symphony No.102, also in B flat. The Adagio highlights the cello in a reflective theme which is related to the minuet of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in G, Op.49 No.2 and indeed to the Septet of 1800.

In Beethoven’s hands the decidedly trivial could become a catalyst for the most imaginative art of transformation – the Diabelli Variations is perhaps the most extreme example – and for the finale of his Trio, Op.11, Beethoven took one of the popular tunes from a recent opera for his inspiration. In fact it is the only one of Beethoven’s major instrumental works to contain a set of variations on a theme by another composer. Joseph Weigl’s comic opera L’amor marinaro (“Love at sea”) was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna in October 1797, and the aria “Pria ch’io l’impegno” was an instant success. In addition to Beethoven, this frequently-hummed tune was also used by Joseph Eybler, Hummel and Paganini, who wrote an elaborate concert piece for violin and orchestra based on it.

Beethoven’s Op.11 acquired the nickname of Gassenhauer or “Street song” Trio as the result of his use of this theme, and the idea of using Weigl’s melody seems to have come from the clarinettist for whom Beethoven wrote the trio, Joseph Bähr. Although Beethoven considered writing another finale he never did so, presumably because he thought this finale too lightweight, but the nine variations are among the young Beethoven’s most inspired, witty and amusing. After the surprise of the opening variation being for piano solo, it stays silent in the second one, a duet for clarinet and cello. The fourth and seventh variations are in B flat minor – the latter’s dotted rhythms and blocks of chords reminiscent of a funeral march. After the last variation there is an amusing diversion from the home key of B flat to G major and to six-eight, the situation being saved and the original tempo regained just in the nick of time.

Jeremy Hayes © 2010