Emanuel Ax, piano; Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello. March 4, 2020.

Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.  Balcony (Seat D38, $0).

Program – All-Beethoven (1770-1827).

Seven Variations on “Bei Mannern, welche Liebe fuhlen” after Mozart’s Die Zauberflote, WoO 46 (1801).

Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 (1815).

Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 (1812, rev. ca. 1814-1815).

Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3 (1794-1795).

First a note about the price.  We got these tickets from our friend CS who was not able to attend the concert.  The value of the ticket as printed is $84.  Sitting around us were two ladies who got rush tickets that morning for $10 each, and a couple who got it “off the street” for $35 each.  The ladies had to stand in line starting at 9:30 am (rush tickets available at 11); and I wouldn’t buy tickets from street touts.

2020 is the 250^th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, so there are many programs to celebrate the event.  This trio has three concerts at Carnegie Hall; we would be back Friday, but I couldn’t make it on Sunday (CS has tickets to all three).  In about two weeks NJSO has two concerts to go through all five of his piano concertos.  All this in addition to the usual Beethoven programmed into various performances.

One must say tonight’s was a light program, even though it is delightful.  The enjoyment of chamber music is the give and take among the various musicians, and there was a lot of that.

Some remarks about each piece, many taken from the Playbill.  Before that, though, the Playbill’s writeup isn’t particularly favorable to Beethoven.

One remark is that Beethoven often supplemented his income by composing variations on popular themes.  Included in this list is “Rule Britannia.”  Nothing wrong with that, and in any case this is a delightful piece consisting of a theme and a (very short) coda, with seven variations in between.

The Cello sonata was written rather late in Beethoven’s life.  As cello compositions go it is not particularly technically challenging.  The unusual aspect is its structure, which consists of two movements: Andante-Allegro vivace and Adagio-Allegro vivace.  At 15 minutes it is also much shorter than usual.

I have a Beethoven Violin Sonatas book, so there is no excuse why I thought there were only nine of them(Kreutzer being the last).  And this is one of Beethoven’s more familiar violin sonatas.  The sonata was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, a patron of Beethoven, and is described by the Playbill as “the antithesis of virtuosic display,” with the only “touch of brilliance” in the coda.  The four movements are: Allegro moderato; Adagio espressivo-Scherzo: Allegro; and Poco allegretto.

The last piece on the regular program is from Op. 1 (composed 1794-1795).  It is the most complex work for the evening.  Another unfavorable remark from the Playbill is that Beethoven was so impatient to get out from the shadow of Haydn that he didn’t even acknowledge him in the title page (evidently that was practice).  The movements are: Allegro con brio; Andante cantabile con variazioni; Menuetto: Quasi allegro; and Finale: Prestissimo.

Kavakos, Ax, and Ma at the conclusion of the Program.

I have not said much about how well the musicians did.  Actually I don’t know.  What I can say is I hope they paid Ax the most.  First, he was there the whole time, and the piano parts were no cakewalk.  Mozart’s violin sonatas are often called piano solos with violin accompaniment; to a large extent the duet pieces gave that impression.  And I know it to be so for the violin sonata.  Here is what the Playbill says about the trio: If the writing for violin and cello falls well within the competency of accomplished amateurs, the piano part presents technical demands of a higher order …

And the musicians did well.  With duets and trios errors can be amplified, or at least more noticeable, and there were a few minor ones.  However, the problem for me was I could imagine my playing at that level when I was at my peak with the violin.  That may not be true, but it points out other than the simple delight in these works, these world-class musicians didn’t seem to bring a lot more to the concert.  To take me out of the equation, I don’t think I can tell the difference if it was another competent chamber group on the stage tonight.

The thunderous applause by the audience seemed to prove me wrong.  Could it be they were just awed by the names?  They did provide an encore, a work by Schubert.

I dreaded driving into this part of town.  Turns out parking was easy to find along 57^th Street a couple of blocks away.  We had dinner at Brooklyn Diner.