Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor

Beethoven’s Piano Trio No. 3 led to his first serious falling-out with his teacher Joseph Haydn. Haydn was impressed with the first two trios in this set, but he advised Beethoven against publishing this one, for the moment at least. The ever-prickly Beethoven took this as a slight inspired by jealousy (it almost certainly wasn’t) and published it anyway, in 1795. The key of C minor is often associated with dark defiance in Beethoven, and that quality comes over strongly in this trio, especially in the magnificent first movement, which sustains its tragic drama right through to its thrilling end. But the variation-form slow movement and the nervy, haunted “Minuet” take us into new territory. The lighting-paced finale seems to want to reengage with the first movement’s heroics, but there’s something impish here, too, and the strangely subdued ending seems to pose a question: Could "tragedy" be a mask, concealing humor, even mockery?