Beethoven was generally opposed to arranging his compositions for other instruments but he made an exception for his new physician Dr. Johann Schmidt, for whom he arranged his popular Opus 20 Septet (Day 121) for violin (or clarinet), cello, and piano, published as Opus 38.
Thayer tells us “The doctor played the violin and his daughter the pianoforte, both fairly well, and Beethoven arranged his popular piece for family use and, as was customary at the time, gave Dr. Schmidt the exclusive possession of the music for one year.”
Although the Opus 38 Trio can be performed with either violin or clarinet, it is almost always played with clarinet these days, and is sometimes even called the Clarinet Trio. Several other Beethoven piano trios exist that violinists can play.
#Beethoven250 Day 167
Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano in E♭ Major (Opus 38), 1802–03
A performance by the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society of Wisconsin, a spinoff of the California society (@BachDDSOC).