This album markes the fourth volume of the complete recordings of Beethoven's piano trios by the Austrian TrioVanBeethoven. It opens with the Trio, Op. 1/3 in C minor. Preceding this last work of hte group of piano trios, Op. 1 were a great number of uncounted works and sketches like the Variations, Op. 44, whose first drafts can be dated back to as early as the year 1792. The famous "Gassenhauer" Trio Op. 11 which was originally written for clarinet instead of the violin, got its sobriquet from the final movement of the work, comprising variation son a then very popular melody from the opera "L'amor marinaro ossia il corsaro" by Joseph Weigl from 1797. The simplicity of this tune in contrast to the normally more serious and complex writing of Beethoven enthused his contemporary critics, and it was advocated he were to write more natural rather than strained pieces. Why 'van Beethoven'? Beethoven stands for independence of mind, for revolutionary ideas, for music that reaches far beyond his own time. Beethoven was a "lone wolf", but at the same time the oentral point of departure for new traditions of composition, such as the lineage from Brahms to Schoenberg. In its foundation year in 2001, the trio held its debut at the renowned Festival Tage der Alten Musik in Herne. Since then, the ensemble has appeared in Austria, Germany, Italy, Frankd, the UK, Poland, Serbia and Greece. Recently, the TrioVanBeethoven has set accents with two concert series in Upper Austria and Styria. The trio is releasing a complete recording of the piano trios by Ludwig van Beethoven for the eminent Austrian label Gramola.