Monika Leonhard, the pianist of the Stuttgart Piano Trio, studied with notable teachers such as Michelangeli and Alfred Brendel.
Beethoven's Opus 1 piano trios were published in 1795 and dedicated to Prince Carl Lichnowsky, who supported the composer.
The two piano trios of Opus 70 were dedicated to Countess Marie von Erdödy, in whose house Beethoven resided in 1808.
Beethoven settled in Vienna in 1792 with the encouragement of his patron, the Archbishop of Cologne, who was the son of the Empress.
The Stuttgart Piano Trio won the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin and the International Radio Competition in Munich in 1969.
Beethoven studied counterpoint with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Italian word-setting with Court Composer Antonio Salieri.
Rainer Kussmaul, the violinist of the Stuttgart Piano Trio, plays a violin made by Andrea Guarnerius in Cremona in 1692.
