These days, as a composer, you have to be careful. Before you know it, you’ll be accused of plagiarism. It used to be different: you honored a colleague if you quoted from their work. This is how we should also view Schumann’s many references to Mendelssohn’s famous 1st Piano Trio. A musical ‘review’ that is perhaps even more intense and expressive than the work he intended to honor with it. Beethoven was also inspired by a theme from a colleague, the aria ‘Pria ch’io líimpegno’ (“Before I get to work, I must eat something.”) from a comic opera by Joseph Weigl. This aria was so popular (people whistled it in the street) that we speak of a Gassenhauer (a street hit), nowadays a hit or a pop song (schlager). The 9 variations on this theme in the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s trio must certainly have made the audience smile at the time. Van Oosten’s first Piano Trio is reminiscent of the way Poulenc paraphrases Mozart; themes seem familiar without being directly ‘borrowed’. The work can be described in a more general sense as eclectic: ‘a style in which the best elements from other styles are brought together’. In this trio, Van Oosten combines expressionism, French sounds, and elements from jazz into a piece that is bursting with energy.

Program:

L. van Beethoven – Gassenhauer trio in Bes opus 11 (1798)

Roel van Oosten – Pianotrio nr 1 (1992)

Robert Schumann – Pianotrio no 2 in F opus 80 (1847)