Beethoven on the Tweed

Beethoven was born the year that Captain Cook sailed down the East Coast of Australia and yet his music still resonates with musicians and music-lovers alike.

So it’s hardly surprising that the locally-based Allegro Trio would turn to the great composer for their latest concert to be held at Tweed Heads Civic Centre.

Allegro Trio includes pianist Vicky Hong, violinist Hugh Won, and cellist Shaohua Chen-Merrett.

All three are talented and accomplished musicians in their own right but together they make sweet music.

Vicky has been a finalist in the National ABC Young Performers Award and is currently an accompanist for the Australian Youth Choir. Hugh was a winner of the National Youth Concerto, has performed with the Australian Youth Orchestra in six international concert tours and worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Shaohua, formerly with the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra and the China National Women’s Chamber Orchestra, has a Masters degree in Cello performance and was the principal cellist of the Northern Rivers Symphony Orchestra for 11 years.

Even if you do not play any musical instruments, you will almost certainly recognise some of Beethoven’s music.

There’s Für Elise, a most popular piano tune for students, the Moonlight Sonata (also used in the Tomb Raider game, of all places!), Symphony no. 5, with a dramatic opening theme which can be heard in over 30 movies, and the list goes on.

Ludwig van Beethoven, born in Germany in 1770, is one of the most famous and influential composers in the history of classical music. Beethoven has composed hundreds of musical pieces which are still performed around the world today – from piano pieces to quartet music, concertos to opera, and everything else in between.

Beethoven’s tumultuous personal life was reflected in his music. While he enjoyed fame and success as a musical prodigy, he also suffered relationship failures, family feuds and chronic illnesses. His music therefore expressed a variety of moods – lonely and romantic, delicate and furious, triumphant and melancholic. No two Beethoven pieces are the same, and throughout his life, his music took on different flavours and tones as events unfolded
and tragedies collapsed around him.

One of the most significant events in Beethoven’s life as a composer was his hearing loss. Over a decade from the age of 26, Beethoven gradually lost his hearing. Although he eventually became completely deaf, he never stopped composing music.

Beethoven may have been gone for almost 200 years, but his music lives on timelessly as a testament to his musical genius and passion, and as one of the greatest and most original composers in history. It is for this reason that Allegro Trio is immensely delighted to present a Beethoven concert.

The program features the complex and lively Archduke Trio, and includes selections from “Waldstein” piano sonata, the “Spring” violin sonata and the Romance no.1 for violin. The music was composed at various stages of Beethoven’s life and shows the many moods of the man. The program also includes Piano Trio no. 29 in E Flat by Joseph Haydn, who was one of Beethoven’s respected teachers.