String Trio in E flat major Op.3 (1792–5)

Beethoven’s Op.3 is not so much a string trio as a divertimento for violin, viola and cello – modelled, clearly, on a distinguished Mozart precedent. Mozart’s Divertimento in E flat K.563 is not only in the same key but is also scored for the same three instruments and includes two minuets and two slow movements (an Andante in B flat and an Adagio in A flat, like Beethoven’s in both cases). So, while the exact date of the composition of the Beethoven work is uncertain, it cannot have been started before the Mozart was published in 1792 and must have been completed by 1795, in time for its publication the following year. Obviously, Beethoven in his early twenties could not compete with Mozart in his thirties, but there are many interesting features here, like the impetus given to the first movement by its syncopated main theme, the insistent use in the Andante of a four-note rhythmic figure that was to become a dynamic force in the Fifth Symphony, and the brilliantly entertaining bagpipe imitaton in the middle section of the second Menuetto.