Trio in E-flat Major for Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 3 (First Version) – Hess 25 Composed in 1792 (no later than October?)

According to memoirs by William Gardiner, an English amateur musician, contemporary of Beethoven, and one of his admirers, in late 1792 Mrs. Bowater—a long-standing guest of Elector Maximilian Franz—became concerned about the prospect of French occupation due to the advancing revolutionary forces along the Rhine. She decided to leave Bonn promptly and return home.

Abbot Clemens Dobbeler, chaplain to the elector, was tasked with escorting her to Hamburg. Upon their arrival, Dobbeler was designated as an emigrant, resulting in the confiscation of his property. Unable to return to Bonn, he accompanied Mrs. Bowater to England, where he accepted her hospitality at her residence in Leicester.

There, music was frequently played, and the abbot—also a skilled violinist—had the opportunity to perform with friends and Gardiner himself. They played quartets by Haydn, Boccherini, and Wranitzky, as well as a Trio “composed by Beethoven shortly before his departure,” which Dobbeler had brought from Bonn. Gardiner was particularly impressed by this Trio.

According to a theory still considered plausible today, this was an early version of the Trio in E-flat major for violin, viola, and cello, later published in spring 1796 in Vienna by Artaria as Opus 3.

However, no further documentation exists—unless one considers as part of this early version:

• A manuscript of the Finale discovered in London in 1917 and held since 1923 by the Library of Congress in Washington. According to librarian C. Engel and as seen in W. Hess’s publication, this manuscript shows only minor differences from the 1796 edition.
• A manuscript of the other movements, missing even the first part of the first Minuet, held at the Paris Conservatory Library. Its initial sketch likely did not fully match the published edition, as suggested by various deletions and corrections.

By comparing Gardiner’s various (and sometimes inconsistent) accounts with the political and military events in Bonn between late 1792 and summer 1794, Engel concluded that Dobbeler and Mrs. Bowater likely left Bonn not in December 1792—when the threat of invasion was brief—but in the second half of 1794, during the final decline of the electoral regime.

Thus, the Trio brought to England by Dobbeler may not have been composed in Bonn in 1792, but rather in Vienna, where Beethoven had been since early November that year. It may have been sent to the Elector as a respectful tribute from a loyal subject and employee.

This does not rule out the possibility that Beethoven brought a sketch from Bonn and refined it in Vienna. In that case, the version Gardiner refers to would not be preliminary, but the same one—perhaps with minor edits—that was eventually published in 1796.

Wegeler says that “when Count Apponyi commissioned Beethoven in 1795 to compose a quartet, the composer—who had never attempted such a genre—tried twice and failed. From the first attempt came a large violin trio (Op. 3), and from the second, a string quintet (Op. 4).”

This could mean Beethoven initially considered using material from the already composed trio for the new quartet. Failing that, he returned to the Trio and finalized it for publication.

We will talk about this issue later.

Two transcriptions exist:

• One from 1807 for piano and cello (Op. 64), not by Beethoven

• One authentic, but incomplete (ending midway through the second movement), for piano, violin, and cello, dated around 1817 (Hess 47)