Trio in E flat Major K.498
Guillermo Laporta, fluteJosefina Urraca, pianoMatthew Cohen, viola
Mozart wrote this piano trio in Vienna and dated the manuscript on August 5, 1786. The work was dedicated to another student of Mozart’s, Franziska von Jacquin; Mozart and the von Jacquin family were close friends. They performed house concerts together, where Nikolaus played the flute and Franziska the piano. Mozart dedicated several works to the von Jacquin family. This clarinet, viola, and piano trio was first played in the von Jacquin’s house; Anton Stadler played clarinet, Mozart the viola, and Franziska von Jacquin the piano. The clarinet was still a relatively new instrument in Mozart’s time, and this trio, along with his Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto, helped increase the instrument’s popularity. The trio was published in 1788 by Artaria and transcribed– probably with Mozart’s consent–for violin, viola, and piano, with the original clarinet part described as an “alternative part.” Due to this unusual scoring, the piece is sometimes adapted to fit other types of trios, like this version for flute, viola, and piano.
