Classical Music | Music for Viola

Recorded on 01/31/2012, uploaded on 01/31/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

I.    Poco sostenuto – Allegro ma non troppo
II.   Allegretto
III.  Allegretto ma non troppo
IV. Finale – Allegro

It was not until ten years after his trio op.11 that Beethoven wrote his two piano trios op. 70. According to Johann Friedrich Reinhardt, the two works were first performed in the salon of Countess Erdödy in Vienna in 1808. Beethoven himself performed "quite masterfully" and "enthusiastically" with violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh and cellist Joseph Linke.

Unlike the dramatic trio op. 70 #1 in D major with it's nickname "Ghost", the E flat trio has a more luminous character. In the first movement, part of the slow introduction, with it's canonic opening, reappears after the recapitulation like a memory. In the second movement Beethoven writes variations on two themes. A cantabile movement is substituted for the customary minuet or scherzo. The Allegro finale, on the other hand, is given over purely to running figures, careering off almost without check. In these two trios op. 70 Beethoven succeeded fully in integrating the two stringed instruments, even though (or because?) he had first conceived these works as piano sonatas.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.