Haydn' misgivings about Beethoven' third piano trio were not entirely unfounded: symphonic in conception, it was a breakthrough work-Beethoven' first masterpiece and eventually one of his most popular chamber pieces-and retains it's power to amaze to this day. His Symphony No. 2 also broke through Classical conventions, a scherzo replacing the customary minuet. In the composer�s own arrangement for piano trio it loses none of it's impact. The youthful Allegretto in E flat is, in effect, a minuet without the expected trio section.
