In quite another mood, but written with the same artistic eccentricity of effect, is the passage near the end of the adagio of Quartett op. 74, in E♭, where the note F♭[21] is played by the viola in the fourth bar of the following quotation:—
Beethoven, Op. 74.
Among Beethoven’s earlier works the five Trios (one being a Serenade) for violin, viola, and ’cello, op. 3, op. 8, and op. 9, rank high, that in C minor, No. 3 of op. 9, being a specially fine work. The limited means (only three instruments) must be reckoned with in these works, yet without any excessive addition to the difficulty of performance, Beethoven produces continually the effect of a full quartett.
There is also another Trio, op. 25, for the unusual combination of violin, flute, and viola, in serenade form. The whole work is most interesting, especially as to the instruments for which it is written, and the fourth movement, which is an andante in G major with variations, performs with a surprising fulness of effect.
Another Trio is that for two oboes and English horn (or alto oboe), op. 87, a rather strongly flavoured mixture, which is apt to pall on the musical palate in actual performance.
It is in his trios for the piano combined with other instruments, but chiefly with the violin and ’cello, that Beethoven’s work strongly contrasts with both Haydn’s and Mozart’s. No doubt his three early works of this kind, published as op. 1, reflect the style and influence of these two masters; yet even in these (the finale of No. 3 in C minor, for example) there are unmistakable signs of the coming Beethoven. But in the later ones, and more particularly that in B♭, op. 97, his supremacy is powerfully manifested.
The Trio, op. 11, for clarinet, ’cello, and piano (a combination used in our time by Brahms in his op. 114), is a pleasant, if not profound work, with a most expressive and charmingly written adagio movement.