The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has performed the Beethoven Trio cycle many times, including at Lincoln Center—the first ever such cycle presentation there. The upcoming performance at the Y, however, will be their first in presenting it all in one day. For the September 30th Marathon, Shirley Ford of the Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts asked the musicians about this enormous undertaking.

Shirley Ford: I know you’ve played the complete Beethoven Trios many times and even recorded them in a two-volume set, but why the decision to perform them all in one day?

Sharon Robinson & Jaime Laredo: We really wanted to honor and thank our loyal fans as well as our many supporters at the 92nd Street Y for a 30-year partnership. We’ve always wondered what the whole cycle would be like in more or less chronological order. This day-long venture should be an amazing journey. We are probably meschuga to try it!

SF: What about the fatigue factor as the day progresses?

SR: Well, we plan on getting some fresh air between concerts, weather permitting, and I’m able to bring my big exercise ball for some stretching. There’s a plan for a light massage session between one or two of the concerts—rest, refresh and drink lots of water. Fortunately, we have a little time off before the undertaking, so a big rest the week before will help us all, too.

SF: Taking into consideration your separate and individual performance schedules all over the world, what about rehearsals?

JL: Since we’ve played the cycle throughout the States and in several countries over the last 30 years, it’s under our fingers—some of the trios are constant companions in our repertoire, others less so, but we’re always looking for (and finding) fresh ideas and great new insight into Beethoven’s language in our brush-up rehearsals and recording sessions.

SF: Other than the music itself, what is the most challenging aspect of the project?

SR & JL: Having the stamina to keep fresh and focused throughout the day and evening!

Shirley also asked Joseph Kalichstein to give us some insight into the music. Below are excerpts from his comments which will appear in their entirety in the concert programs, along with the program notes of Steven Ledbetter, who also provided the notes for the Trio’s CDs.

Joseph Kalichstein: Performances of Beethoven cycles, especially symphonies, string quartets and piano sonatas, occur rather regularly on the world’s stages. Aside from being yet another proof of Beethoven’s enduring popularity, there is a special reason for presenting and listening to them: these complete cycles—more than any of other composers—give a unique, total musical biography and take performers and listeners alike on a mammoth journey, where the signposts (that is, the gestures, ideas and musical language) remain familiarly constant, yet each vista has some surprising new development heralding—often—an amazing change.

The String Quartet cycle is in a sense the most comprehensive. The piano, however, was the instrument of Beethoven’s youth, so for a look at the very sprouting of his genius, the Piano Sonatas and the Piano Trios are the cycles to watch.

The Piano Trios, although relatively small in number, take us through most of Beethoven’s creative life—even more than the piano sonata, the piano trio was, for Beethoven, a medium for the performer in him; his inability, in the late years, to perform and to communicate with fellow musicians meant the death knell for the genre.

Beethoven’s penchant for extremes is evident throughout: the heart-rending and profound slow movement lives side by side with a lighthearted finale; expansiveness and Schubertian lyricism is concurrent with terseness and angularity; and the terror of the slow movement is juxtaposed with a carefree, optimistic and exuberant finale.

If this were a purely historical survey, where concert programs, their length, construction and limitations did not play any role, two very early attempts (from Beethoven’s pre-Vienna years) would have been included: a fragment (Menuet) from his early teens and an overlong and—truth be told—uninspired E-flat Trio (1789, WoO 38). (Lest I sound blasphemous: one of the things we all love about Beethoven is his being so human, which includes his human frailty. It is liberating to admit that the composer of such miracles as the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, the two Sonatas for the Hammerklavier and the Violin Concerto, did not always have the genius touch!).

Two works of real quality that are also omitted here, since they are very lengthy transcriptions, are the reworking for piano trio of the Septet and the Second Symphony. (The piano trio medium, like the piano four-hands, was a popular way of bringing large-scale works into the home, where supposed amateurs were able to play them for their enjoyment… Must have been quite a group of amateurs!)

Included in this cycle are two rarely heard works: The Variations Op. 44, a close relative of the “Eroica” Variations and a sweet, innocent—yet meticulously written—Allegretto (published after his death, WoO 39) that Beethoven used as a teaching piece for a 10-year-old student.

And finally, as one listens to the work closing this cycle, the “Archduke” Trio (written only a year later), one hears this gentle quality, along with the wild explosions, the uncompromising “wrong” accents, the Brahmsian, soaring lines, the ethereal lightness, the “peasanty” heaviness, the intensity of feeling, the humor, all mixed together in one wondrous bundle.

No one was more complete.

[Complete Beethoven Piano Trios: 9/30/07]

Related: Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson will appear LIVE at Tanglewood on Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on Saturday, June 30th, 2007. (6PM Eastern) They will perform several movements from SUITE FOR TWO, which Andy Stein wrote for them this year to celebrate 30 years of marriage and 30 years of performing together. Garrison Keillor is also coming to the Y in April 2008.