Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”:
• 1 Beethoven: Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”: I. Allegro vivace e con brio 10:20
• 2 Beethoven: Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”: II. Largo assai ed espressivo 10:01
• 3 Beethoven: Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”: III. Presto 08:32
• Ten Variations in G Major on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu”, Op. 121a:
• 4 Beethoven: Ten Variations in G Major on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu”, Op. 121a 17:51
• Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1:
• 5 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1: I. Allegro 10:15
• 6 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1: II. Adagio cantabile 07:15
• 7 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1: III. Scherzo: Allegro assai 05:01
• 8 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1: IV. Finale: Presto 08:08
• Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2:
• 9 Beethoven: Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2: I. Adagio-Allegro vivace 12:04
• 10 Beethoven: Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2: II. Largo con espressione 09:32
• 11 Beethoven: Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2: III. Scherzo: Allegro 03:55
• 12 Beethoven: Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2: IV. Finale: Presto 08:06
• Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”:
• 13 Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”: I. Allegro moderato 12:54
• 14 Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”: II. Scherzo: Allegro 11:10
• 15 Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”: III. Andante cantabile, ma però con moto 11:24
• 16 Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”: IV. Allegro moderato 07:09
• Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3:
• 17 Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3: I. Allegro con brio 10:17
• 18 Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3: II. Andante cantabile con Variazioni 07:51
• 19 Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3: III. Minuetto: Quasi allegro 03:53
• 20 Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3: IV. Finale: Prestissimo 08:37
• Fourteen Variations in E-flat Major, Op. 44:
• 21 Beethoven: Fourteen Variations in E-flat Major, Op. 44 13:26
• Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2:
• 22 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2: I. Poco sostenuto – Allegro ma non troppo 10:37
• 23 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2: II. Allegretto 05:46
• 24 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2: III. Allegretto ma non troppo 07:22
• 25 Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2: IV. Finale: Allegro 08:05
• Total Runtime 03:49:31

Info for Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios

The Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio releases their highly anticipated "Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios" album. The stellar New York City based trio offers deep, beautifully rendered interpretations of eight immortal masterworks.

Op. 70 is a set of two Piano Trios by Ludwig van Beethoven, written for piano, violin, and cello. Both trios were composed during Beethoven’s stay at the home of arts patroness Countess Anna Maria von Erdödy, and both are dedicated to her, a dear confidante and sponsor.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Macbeth!? Alas, if only he had! For now, and ever after all we have is the Piano Trio op. 70 for piano, violin, and cello, the elegiac second movement of which, marked Largo assai ed espressivo, inspired Czerny to nickname the work, the Ghost Trio, despite its energetic opening Allegro vivace e con brio in D major and its lively closing Presto.

Was that second movement a sketch for an opera to come? We will never know. The Cockatoo Variations opens seriously and then morphs into a work more suited to the salon than to the concert hall. Despite its 18 minutes of musical silliness, the Weiss Kaplan Trio plays the work without a hint of condescension.

By no means Beethoven’s first published composition, the CD also includes the youthful piano trio, opus 1, no. 1, first performed and published in 1795, a charming, four movement work which the superb Weiss Kaplan Trio delivers in a noble performance as the closer to the superb Beethoven Complete Piano Trios album.

Yael Weiss, piano
Mark Kaplan, violin
Peter Stumpf, cello

The Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio
Combining the talents of three award-winning soloists, the Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio brings to each performance its distinctive fusion of authority and experience, energy, and passion. These three musicians comprise an ensemble that embraces the music of the future while offering fresh insights into three centuries of masterworks.

Hailed by The New York Times as “Three strong voices, locked in sequence,” the Trio was originally founded in 2001, and was joined in 2014 by the distinguished cellist Peter Stumpf. The Trio has presented concerts throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East, with multiple appearances at The Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Baltimore’s Shriver Hall, Princeton, UCLA, Indiana and Oxford Universities, Tel-Aviv Museum, and for the Chamber Music Societies of Edinburgh, Santander, Pasadena, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Tucson, among others.

The Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio is frequently engaged to appear as soloists in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with orchestras such as the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Bloomington Camerata, New Bedford Symphony and Sioux City Symphony. A performance of the Triple Concerto at the Prague Festival was praised for its “rare timbral refinement, nobility and virtuosic brilliance...among the brightest moments of this year's Festival” (Lidove noviny, Prague). Other international festival performances have included appearances at the Jeju Island Music Festival in Korea and the Festival of the Sound in Canada.

The group is committed to new music, and has commissioned many works, including Lera Auerbach’s “Triptych: The Mirror With Three Faces”, Clancy Newman’s “Juxt-Opposition”, and “Variations on a Poem” by Michael Hersch. In the spring of 2015, the Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio performed the world premiere of Michael Gilbertson’s new concerto for trio and orchestra, “Outliers”, commissioned for the group by the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra.

The Trio is also known for its stimulating and varied programming of the entire trio repertoire, and for performances of Beethoven’s complete cycle of works for Piano Trio, which are an ongoing part of its programming. This year’s concertizing includes multiple presentations of this complete cycle.

The Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio records for Bridge Records. This season they are recording the first volume of Beethoven’s Complete Piano Trios. Previously, a 2015 CD project features works by Fred Lerdahl, and a 2014 release entitled “An American Tour” includes world premiere recordings of four new American trios by Lera Auerbach, Chen Yi, Clancy Newman and Paul Schoenfeld. The Trio’s 2011 release of Brahms and Smetana trios has received wide critical acclaim – Fanfare Magazine hailed it as “absolutely one fabulous chamber music recording you cannot afford to be without. . . This may just be the best of the best Brahms B Major Trio recordings.” Previously Bridge also presented the Trio’s recording of Paul Chihara’s trio, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, a work the group commissioned and premiered in 2006 at the Kennedy Center.

The Trio is well known to American radio audiences through nationwide broadcasts on shows such as NPR’s Performance Today and WNYC’s SoundCheck. An appearance on St. Paul Sunday has been broadcast nationally several times, and was selected for St. Paul Sunday's “Best of the Year” CD.

Booklet for Beethoven: Complete Piano Trios