Amazon.com essential recordingThe Archduke is Beethoven's most popular piano trio, and one of his greatest "middle period" works. There's an image that persists of Beethoven as the composer of one long, heaven-storming, fist-shaking musical temper tantrum. Works like the Fifth Symphony and the Pathetique Piano Sonata add fuel to this fire. But that was only one side of Beethoven's character. He was also a composer of grandly expansive music of almost cosmic serenity, and in pieces like the Violin Concerto, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and this magnificent trio, we see the other side of his musical personality. It's just as exciting, and rather more human, than many people expect. This excellent performance has both of these qualities--excitement and humanity--in abundance. --David Hurwitz