Ludwig van Beethoven

Clarinet Trios B flat major Op. 11 and E flat major Op. 38

Beethoven composed his Clarinet Trios op. 11 and 38 in 1798 and 1802/03. The op. 11 was given the nickname 'Gassenhauer Trio' because its third movement is a set of variations on a theme from Joseph Weigl's opera L'amor marinaro ('Gassenhauer' means a 'popular song'). Playing with many possibilities in these nine variations, Beethoven sometimes lets the piano appear alone, and sometimes has it rest. In places the mood is that of a sort of funeral march, and there are harmonic and rhythmic surprises throughout. The op. 38 'Grand Trio', the later of the two, was a reworking by Beethoven himself of his op. 20 Septet. He provided - as also in the case of op. 11 - an alternative violin part, in order to give the work broader distribution and thus greater popularity. The violin parts are likewise included with our Urtext edition, which - just as back then- makes it doubly valuable.