Beethoven composed just five works for violin, viola, and cello, all within just a few years. The first two were the Opus 3 String Trio and the Opus 8 Serenade. The other three were packaged into Opus 9 —three string trios that are now numbered as String Trios 3, 4, and 5.
All three of Beethoven’s Opus 9 String Trios have four movements, giving them a feel of being big symphonic works. In his dedication, Beethoven called them “la meilleur de ses [sic] oeuvres.” He meant to say “the best of my work.”
The first of Beethoven Opus 9 String Trios begins with a serious Adagio introduction, and the Allegro that follows is hesitant in its joyfulness. With its extensive use of triplets, the ethereal second movement Adagio often gives the impression of being in 9/8 time.
The 3rd movement would normally be a Minuet and Trio, but Beethoven was starting to move away from that convention and provides a scherzo instead. The last mm is neither a rondo nor a theme and variations, but a frantic Presto that bursts into surprising rhapsodic lyricism.
#Beethoven250 Day 96
String Trio No. 3 in G Major (Opus 9, No. 1), 1797–98
The Toronto-based Trio Arkel (@TrioArkel) has a grand time with the moto perpetuo finale, concluding a marvelous performance.
In 1797 a Baron von Kubau wrote:
Whoever sees Beethoven for the first time and knows nothing about him would surely take him for a malicious, ill-natured, quarrelsome drunkard who has no feeling for music.… On the other hand, he who sees him for the first time surrounded by his fame and his glory, will surely see musical talent in every feature of an ugly face.”