Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Ludwig van Beethoven

Quartet for violin, viola, cello and piano, WoO 36

 

Apart from a transcription of the Quintet for Winds and Piano, Op. 16, the three quartets for violin, viola, cello and piano, WoO (work without opus number) 36, are the only compositions that Beethoven wrote for an ensemble made up of piano and three string instruments. The pieces, which are known to date from his youth, are thought to have been written in 1785, when Beethoven was approximately fifteen years old. Nevertheless, the three pieces - in the keys of E-flat Major, D Major and C Major, respectively - are not merely the work of an apprentice: along with some clear-cut references to Mozart and Haydn, there are unequivocal characteristics that prefigure the individualised language of what we refer to as Beethoven’s “first period”. The Quartet No. 3, in C Major, is made up of three movements (Allegro vivace - Adagio con espressione - Rondo, Allegro); its most intense segment is the slow, middle movement in F Major, the theme of which, transformed, was to reappear a few years later in the Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1.

listen to Real Media recording

1. Allegro vivace
2. Adagio con espressione
3. Rondo. Allegro

Performers

Performance