Hyperion Records

Trio No 3 in C minor is often described as the most dramatic of the three, but many pieces cast in the minor mode (still around 1800 quite a rarity) similarly explore the surprise elements it automatically includes, and there is little of the drama of either Haydn’s Sturm und Drang symphonies, or even the opening of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte about this music, and much of its character seems to spring from its short-phrased gruffness—a characteristic far more essential to this work, and later almost unique to Beethoven’s music.

from notes by Stephen Daw © 1998