Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736–1809):
Trio in C major, Op. 9/1

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809):
Trio in G major, Op. 53, No. 1

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827):
Serenade for String Trio in D major, Op. 8

“No other musical genre involves so few difficulties and is more pleasing than trios which have been composed with intelligence and art,” wrote Johann Adam Hiller in 1768, who among other posts he served in was director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts and later also Thomaskantor. Though he refers in this case to the thoroughbass accompanied trio, his words also apply to the free ensemble performance by three individual instruments which emerged primarily during the Viennese classical period. The pleasure of playing had to be achieved through certain special qualities when composing: it was meant to sound like a full string quartet although there were only three parts. Great works were already being composed early; one need only think of Mozart’s Divertimento in E-flat major, KV 563 (1788), the work of a mature master, or Beethoven’s Trios, Opp. 3 and 9 (published 1796 and 1798 respectively), precocious masterworks....