Charles Petzold



#Beethoven250 Day 12
Piano Quartet in C Major (WoO 36, No. 3), 1785

The third of 14-year-old Beethoven’s three piano quartets has a rousing opening Allegro, a touching Adagio, and a zippy concluding Rondo that ends too soon.

After his three pioneering piano quartets, Beethoven never wrote for piano quartet again.

Never? As usual, there’s always one weird exception: Beethoven arranged a 1796 quintet (for piano and winds) for piano quartet as well. Both versions were published in 1801 as Opus 16.