Beethoven- " Kakadu Variations " Piano Trio Op. 121a in g minor

 

Beethoven

 

" Kakadu Variations " Piano Trio Op. 121a in g minor

 Euna Na - Violin
Joyce Jeongwon Yang- Cello
Tal-Haim Samnon- piano

 

 

"Kakadu^[a] Variations" is the nickname given to Ludwig van Beethoven's variations for piano trio

on the theme "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu" by Wenzel Müller. The variations were published in

1824 as Opus 121a, the last of Beethoven's piano trios to be published. The work is notable for the contrast between its solemn introduction and the lightweight variations that follow.

 

The opening theme is taken from the aria "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu" ("I am the tailor, Kakadu") from the opera "Die Schwestern von Prag" ("The Sisters From Prague") by Wenzel Muller.

 

The work begins with a solemn Adagio introduction in G minor that lasts about around a third of the work's total duration. The theme itself, when it finally appears, is almost comically anticlimactic - a simple, even trivial tune taken from Muller's opera 'Die Schwestern von Prag', composed in Vienna in 1794 and popular during Beethoven's lifetime. This theme is followed by 10 variations, the first eight of which are conventional in style - a sequence of increasingly ornate decorations on Muller's theme as it passes back and forth between the three instruments. With the ninth variation, the music returns to the minor key and slow tempo of the introduction, while the final variation is a longer movement with several episodes of contrasting mood and tempo. Like the introduction, this final variation shows a chromatic and contrapuntal complexity that goes beyond what Beethoven achieved in his early works, and which likely reflects revisions made during his period of greatest maturity.