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Conrad Berg – Grand Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 11 (Dedicated to Beethoven)

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Conrad Berg: Grosse Trio für Piano-Forte, Violin und Violoncello

Verfast, und den Herrn Ludwig van Beethoven zugeeignet 11tes Werk.
The musical examples on this page are by Graziano Denini.

Conrad (or Konrad) Matthias Berg was born in Colmar on April 25 (or 27), 1785, and died in Strasbourg on December 14, 1852. A musician by heritage (his father was a music teacher at the Pfeffel Military Institute in Colmar), he moved to Strasbourg with his father when the institute closed in 1790.

He studied violin with Ignaz Fränzl in Mannheim (1804–1805) and piano at the Paris Conservatory (1806–1807). Upon returning to Alsace in 1808, he taught piano and violin, and for the next thirty years was considered Strasbourg’s finest music teacher.

Berg composed:

  • Three piano concertos
  • Grandes variations sur la marche d’Aline for orchestra
  • Rondeau favori for piano and orchestra
  • Sonatas for violin and piano
  • A duo with variations for two pianos
  • Numerous trios for piano, violin, and cello
  • Three string quartets
  • A quartet for piano, violin, and viola
  • Cello sonatas for piano
  • Fantasies, rondos, variations, and various pieces for piano and violin or solo piano
  • A ballad for soprano and piano titled Die Nixe des Mummelsee, which was very successful at the time

As a music theorist, he authored a well-known book: Ideen zu einer rationnellen Lehre der Methode der Musik mit Anwendung auf Clavierspiel, published in Weber’s journal Caecilia (Vol. V, p. 89). Following this, he wrote:

  • Exercices journaliers de mécanisme pour le piano
  • Méthode progressive pour le piano, with a manual for teachers and a historical overview of music in Strasbourg over the past fifty years (published in Strasbourg, 1840)

Regarding his admiration for Beethoven, in addition to the Piano Trio Op. 11 (the subject of this article), Berg contributed in 1846 to the Beethoven-Album: ein Gedenkbuch dankbarer Liebe und Verehrung für den großen Todten, a commemorative book by artists and art lovers from France, England, Italy, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Hungary, and Russia. His composition, an Andante mesto for piano with a tone of twilight resignation, appears on page 268 of the book and is available on the site (Conrad Berg – Andante mesto for piano).

Berg visited Vienna in 1816, meeting many musicians including Beethoven, to whom he was introduced by Peter Joseph Simrock, son of Nikolaus Simrock (Beethoven’s friend in Bonn and music publisher).

In September 1816, Peter Simrock traveled to Vienna hoping to secure contracts with Beethoven. He met Beethoven both in Vienna and Baden. On September 28, just before returning to Bonn, Beethoven signed the contract for the publication of his two Cello Sonatas Op. 102, which were published in Bonn the following year along with the Lied Das Geheimnis (WoO 145).

Years later, Simrock recounted his meetings with Beethoven to Alexander Wheelock Thayer, the renowned Beethoven biographer (featured in a dedicated section of the site’s exhibition at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn). In his recollections, Simrock also mentions Berg’s meeting with Beethoven.

Simrock recalls that Berg asked Beethoven if he could dedicate some piano trios to him. Beethoven replied: “Nun, wenn er keinen Bessern hat, so kann er die mir dedizieren.” (“Well, if he has no one better, he may dedicate them to me.”)

The trios were published at the end of 1816 by S.A. Steiner & Co., and a review appeared in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung mit besonderer Rücksicht auf den österreichischen Kaiserstaat – Vol. 1 (1817), No. 20, May 15, pp. 161–164:

Review:

  1. C. Berg: Three Grand Trios for Pianoforte, Violin, and Violoncello; dedicated to Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven. 11th Work … (Property of the publishers)

Further References: Information about this neglected and now forgotten theorist and composer can be found in:

  • Allgemeine Musikzeitung, 1841, p. 321
  • Alsatia, 1854–1857, p. 291
  • Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, Vol. II, 1875, p. 364
  • F.-J. Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens, Vol. I, 1875, p. 354
  • Revue d’Alsace, 1887–1888, p. 318
  • Sitzmann, Dictionnaire de biographie des hommes célèbres de l’Alsace, Rixheim, 1909, Vol. I, p. 127
  • H. Riemann, Musiklexikon, Vol. I, 1959, p. 146
  • R. Muller, Anthologie des compositeurs de musique d’Alsace, 1970, p. 13
  • Saisons d’Alsace, No. 69, “Lexiqu”

The score copy of Berg’s trio, whose title page is reproduced, belonged to Joseph Müller (1839–1880), musicologist and director of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (1871–1874). In 1870, Müller published in Bonn the catalog Musical Treasures of the State and University Library of Königsberg.

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