Though concertos with more than one solo instrument were common in the Baroque era, their popularity waned throughout the Classical and Romantic periods. Mozart's Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola, Beethoven's Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello, and then Brahms' Double Concerto for violin and cello would be the most impressive exceptionts to that rule.
Itzhak Perlman, who has recorded all three of these works, laid down early versions of the Brahms (EMI/Warner, 1979) and the Mozart (DG, 1982), but waited far longer to commit his own interpretation of the Beethoven to disc. The score, which provided aristocratic ensembles in imprerial Vienna with a model illustrating the possibilities offered by the piano trio, has often suffered because of its formal ambiguities - is it a triple concerto or a concerto for piano trio with orchestra?
