Streichtrio B-Dur, D 471

In 1816/17 Schubert wrote two string trios. Like the early string quartets, they were intended for the family string quartet, in which his brothers and father played violins and cello, and he himself played the viola. The first of these trios (B flat major, D 471) remained unfinished: its complete first movement, Allegro, is followed by 39 bars of an unfinished Andante . As in many other cases – one need only think of the "Unfinished" and the quartet movement in C minor – the reason for the abandonment of the piece is puzzling. Perhaps the two movements contained too many and too clear reminiscences of Mozart and Haydn (such as Haydn's Quartet, op. 76, 4) for Schubert, who was striving for independence at the time. Despite these echoes, which are characteristic of Schubert's work in those years and which were described by a Schubert researcher as a "classical imitation", the string trio movement is one of the most charming miniatures in Schubert's chamber music.