This week, some music of contrast. Beethoven wrote the single movement "Alegretto" piano trio for a ten year old girl from Vienna. He wrote in the dedication that he hoped the piece would bring "encouragement in pianoforte playing." The simple but showy piano part was probably written by Beethoven to allow the young player to shine. The allegretto will be followed by Mozart's G minor string quintet. As we heard a few weeks ago, Mozart's choice to add an extra viola perhaps came from his personal love of viola playing. This quintet was written along with the C Major quintet, in a few weeks' time, and the two were probably written as a complementary pair. The G minor quintet on this program is the darker and more dramatic of the two, written to follow the beautifully simple last movement of the C Major quintet. In a similar vein to Mozart's intended pairing, we'll begin this week with Beethoven's Allegretto for piano trio.

Recorded live in the Tapestry Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is pleased to share this concert under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License. For details see www.gardnermuseum.org.

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