Piano Trio No. 1 in E‑Flat Major

Beethoven was 24 and already an experienced composer when he published his first set of three piano trios. But by giving them the designation Op. 1 he showed that he felt he’d at last arrived at full maturity. Influences can be made out, especially his and Mozart's teacher Haydn, but the voice is already recognizable: gruff at times, but also soulful, and with Beethoven’s own distinctive playfulness—sometimes delicate, sometimes tigerish. As a medium, the piano trio was still in the process of becoming itself in Beethoven’s early years. It had started out as a kind of enhanced piano sonata: the violin enriching the piano’s melodic writing, the cello more or less confined to supporting the bass line. Haydn, and still more Mozart, had made it more of an ensemble piece, but it was Beethoven who was to liberate the violin and cello fully, and already in this early work we can hear him making great strides toward that musically democratic goal.