Franz Xaver Süßmayr: String Trio in D minor
Largo Maestoso
Finale, Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimento KV 563 in E flat major
Allegro
Adagio
Minuetto I
Andante con variazioni
Minuetto II
Allegro

Program Notes

Today Franz Xaver Süßmayr (Schwanenstadt 1766 - Vienna 1803) is known only for being the friend of Mozart who completed the Requiem, but in his time he enjoyed a great popularity. At the age of 13 years, after learning the basics music from his father, he studied organ, violin and viola at Kremsmuenster at the Benedictine Monastery, where he began to compose music for the liturgy. 
In 1787 he moved to Vienna where he met Mozart and Salieri and in a short time, living as musician and copyist, became appreciated composer. Suffice it to say that in 1794 his opera 'Der Spiegel in Arkadien' (The mirror in Arcadia) had over a hundred replies. He was Kapellmeister to the court of Vienna and at the Royal Opera House, he composed operas, cantatas, ballets and several works of chamber music. Trio in D minor, written most probably before 1792, is the only composition remained for string trio. He probably wrote a second trio, but of this work in the manuscript by the British Library has remained essentially only the title page. His fresh and immediate style shows greatly his instrumental experience and theatrical approaches to the music, and is formely similar to the trios by Haydn.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed for string trio only one work, but that is the very first and most important classical composition for the ensamble violin-viola-cello. Beethoven, who in his youth devoted himself to 5 trios for strings, inspired many times directly to this masterpiece. Written in September 1788, the Divertimento (or Trio) KV 563, appears already in the sources of the XVIII century with this dual title and can be described as an emblematic work: while it adheres to the typical entertainment style of the "Divertimento" (for the outwardly light content and a large number of movements, six), on the other side it shows a complexity of writing and musical conception that is closer to his Quartets and Piano Trios. 
The initial Allegro, in sonata form, is followed by a pregnant Adagio closed to the dramatic Requiem and to certain passages of Don Giovanni. 
The Andante, preceded and followed by two Minuettos, is the fourth time and is emblematic for understanding the character of the whole work, in the form of theme and variation: built on an almost popular theme, it combinates the voices of the three instruments giving them an equal role, not without virtuosity. A seemingly light Rondò closes the composition, in which the polyphonic interweaving of the three instruments, often a canon, reveals the known mastery of an unrivaled genius.