Event
Beethoven’s Ghost Trio
Naples Philharmonic Sypert Salon Chamber Music
Musicians of the Naples Philharmonic
Spohr — Duo for Violin and Viola, Op. 13
Beethoven — Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”
Beethoven’s eerie composition Ghost and a piece from Louis Spohr, a lesser-known contemporary of Beethoven’s, known more for his musical inventions than his music, highlight the final Sypert Salon program of the 2024-25 season.
Musicians of the Naples Philharmonic begin the program with a deviously challenging performance of Spohr’s frenetic Duo for Violin and Viola. While Spohr composed numerous symphonies, operas, concerti and chamber works, the composer is best known today more for the tools he contributed to classical music: He invented the violin chinrest, the orchestral rehearsal mark and was one of the first conductors to use a baton.
Between his compositional writing and performances as a violinist or conductor, Spohr often practiced alongside Beethoven and wasn’t afraid to criticize the maestro. In fact, after playing through the Ghost Trio with Beethoven, Spohr noted that Beethoven’s piano was out of tune and that his performance was careless. Despite this early criticism, the Ghost Trio became one of the best-known works in chamber music. Dubbed the Ghost Trio because of its strange score and otherworldly sounding middle movement, pages from Beethoven’s notes suggest that, while he was composing the trio, he may also have been working on music for an opera adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, possibly for the emblematic scene with the three witches.
