ABSTRACT
The cellist emerges from the maelstrom with a lyrical theme that strongly resembles a passage from the first movement of the Third Piano Concerto. A smooth transition to the dominant leads logically to the violinist's entry; it soon becomes a neat little dialogue with the cello in which they exchange the snippets in bars 4/5 of the opening theme before joining in a busy passage in triplets which slows expressively to make way for the pianist. There are a tremendous number of notes to be written down in a Triple Concerto and it may be that Beethoven simply tired of the project and became less than his normally critical self. In the slow movement which follows Beethoven gives us a frustrating vision of what a wonderful concerto for cello he might have written had he put his mind to it.
