Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma's album “Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5”. The recording erases the border between orchestral and chamber music, presenting two of Beethoven's iconic symphonies in intimate arrangements that maintain the power and immediacy of Beethoven's orchestral works. Beethoven for Three transports listeners to the turn of the nineteenth century, when audiences would have been more familiar with the composer’s music in arrangements for piano trio, string quartet, or piano four hands than for full orchestra. Here, Ax, Kavakos, and Ma seek out the most essential elements of Beethoven's musical language, pairing his second symphony, arranged for trio by Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries, with his fifth — among the most recognizable pieces in western classical music — in a newly-commissioned arrangement by Colin Matthews.

Performing the symphonies on three instruments is a challenge that yields a wealth of insights about Beethoven’s writing process. “The idea of actually being able to play the beginning of the fifth symphony with your hands is just an incredible thrill,” says Ax. “And you learn a lot about his kind of combination of controlled mania with an incredible lyricism — and you get so much of that in both the fifth symphony and the second … It was an incredible thrill to work on this over and over and over, just trying to get the notes.”

Beethoven for Three continues a thread begun by Ax, Kavakos, and Ma at the 2021 Tanglewood Music Festival, where they first played Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in trio format. “No pale shadow was this,” wrote The Boston Globe. “The arc of the piece was finely honed, with no iteration of any musical idea exactly the same; the gentle smile that lit up Ma's face when he watched the others during his tacets was music in itself. It'd probably be hard to find a person who was happier to be there.”

Tracks 1-4, arrangement attributed to Ferdinand Ries, under the supervision of the composer Tracks 4-8, arrangement by Colin Matthews.

1. I. Adagio Molto - Allegro Con Brio (Symphony No. 2 In D Majo
2. Ii. Larghetto Quasi Andante (Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op.
3. Iii. Scherzo. Allegro Vivo (Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 3
4. Iv. Allegro Molto (Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36)
5. I. Allegro Con Brio (Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67)
6. Ii. Andante Con Moto (Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67)
7. Iii. Scherzo. Allegro (Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67)
8. Iv. Allegro (Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67)