Although Beethoven and Schoenberg were physically and harmonically worlds apart, the Transfigured String Trio presents two works that perfectly complement each other. Beethoven’s Op. 9 trios, while not as perennially popular as the quartets, were among his earliest mature chamber works. Each of the four movements is filled with the humorous wit and joie de vivre for which Beethoven was known. While at this point, Beethoven was likely in denial about the onset of his deafness, Schoenberg was very much open about his own illness: this trio was written after a near-fatal heart attack. He regarded the work as a portrait of his illness in music, a representation of the delirium, agitation, and suffering he experienced throughout his life.