I. Allegro II. Largo III. Rondo alla Polacca
The triple concerto for violin, cello and piano is an example of the ‘sinfonia concertante’ genre, which produced few truly important works. The triple concerto is Beethoven’s only such composition. The march like opening movement, the expressive A flat major largo and the dance like Pollaca’s thematic material all impose a very characteristic dotted rhythmic character upon the work. An interesting feature of the concerto is that Beethoven did for once pay attention to the physical limitations of the soloist. The relatively simple piano part was written for his pupil, the Archduke Rudolf. The violin and cello parts are considerably more demanding, since they were to be performed by two professional musicians from the Archduke’s court.