The idea to record the complete String Trios by Beethoven was inspired by the fact that this year, 2020, marks 250 years since his birth, in December 1770. His music is still as much alive and relevant as ever, and remains at the core of all classical music. Despite the fact that these remarkable string trios are certainly in no way of inferior quality to the early string quartets by Beethoven, they have been performed and recorded less often. The String Quartet, with it’s enormous wealth of inspired repertoire is naturally more established as an institution than the String Trio. We hope this recording will contribute to the celebration of this vital and even more concise string ensemble formation.

The young Beethoven travelled to Vienna in 1791 to study composition with Haydn. Due to his youth one might be tempted to presume that these early trios could be some sort of exercise or practice for his quartets, but when listening, or indeed studying and performing them, it is quite clear that they already display the vital genius of Beethoven’s very personal style. After 1798, when he first embarked on writing his string quartets, he left the genre of the string trio permanently behind. As was common practice in the day, and surely for self-instruction as much as in homage, it can be assumed that Beethoven modeled his first string trio, opus 3, on Mozart’s magnificent Divertimento K563, written in 1788. Many aspects mirror Mozart ́s masterpiece. Both works display huge depth whilst embracing the entertaining lightness of the Divertimento style. Both charm and deeply touch the listener by turns. They are in the same key of E flat, include six movements, have two Minuets, and the slow movements are in the subdominant key, a frequent choice of Mozart’s.