Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" and Leonore Overture No. 3 Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma, Antoine Tamestit

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica":
• 1 Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica": I. Allegro con brio 14:11
• 2 Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica": II. Marcia funebre. Adagio assai 14:13
• 3 Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica": III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace 05:43
• 4 Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica": IV. Finale. Allegro molto 12:01
• Leonore Overture No. 3 in C Major, Op. 72b:
• 5 Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 in C Major, Op. 72b 13:32
• Total Runtime 59:40

Info for Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" and Leonore Overture No. 3

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma releasing their fifth album in their acclaimed Beethoven for Three series, out August 28, 2026 on Sony Classical. Pairing Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, with Leonore Overture No. 3 from the composer’s only opera, Fidelio, this new recording marks another milestone in three friends' journey through the marvels of one extraordinary composer. This installment welcomes celebrated violist Antoine Tamestit into the ensemble for the first time.

Beethoven for Three features three friends in pursuit of the essential elements of Beethoven's musical language, presenting his most iconic symphonies in arrangements for small groups. By performing the symphonies on three (and now four) instruments, the artists give audiences a rare look at Beethoven's compositional language at its most intimate and raw.

"We all feel that being able to participate in a symphony is such a wonderful thing to do," says Ma. "One of the things that has separated people since recording began is the categories that we put people in, in which chamber musicians, orchestra players, people who play concertos, people who do transcriptions, people who compose, people who conduct, are all viewed as separate categories with no overlap. That siloed thinking discourages actual creativity and collaboration between people. And so, we feel that one of the things that is really important to do today is to actually go back to the first principles of music, the simple interaction between friends who want to do something together."

"The beginnings of all this music were first arranged," says Ax. "It used to be completely normal that the first release of a symphony would not be the full score. You wouldn't get that music until dozens of years later. You would get the arrangement for one piano four hands, or trio, or quartet, that was done by the composer and handed to the publisher. And that's how you got to know the music."

An avid performer of chamber music, violist Antoine Tamestit joins the group following a recent collaboration with the trio in recital at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, opening the 2025–26 Tanglewood season. Tamestit, a founding member of Trio Zimmermann with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltéra, has a rich, deeply colored tone and formidable technique that have made him one of the most sought-after violists of his generation, with premieres including Jörg Widmann's Viola Concerto, which was written for him.

Pianist and composer Shai Wosner’s arrangements have become central to the project's distinctive sound and reflect the tradition of Beethoven's own era, when symphonic works were commonly disseminated through chamber arrangements. Wosner has arranged Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 1, 4, and 6 for the trio in addition to this new arrangement of "Eroica" for quartet. His arrangement of the Sixth Symphony, "Pastorale," was singled out by Gramophone for the way it honors Beethoven's original writing without being confined by it. Wosner's own honors as a pianist include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

This new album brings together two defining masterpieces from Beethoven's heroic period, the "Eroica" Symphony's journey from struggle to triumph and the Leonore Overture's vivid musical drama capture a composer expanding the possibilities of Classical form and paving the way toward the early Romantic era.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 Eroica represents one of the most profound artistic statements of the composer's heroic period. Originally conceived as a tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Beethoven admired as a champion of the ideals of the French Revolution and the promise of a new age, the symphony underwent a profound transformation when Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804. Disillusioned by what he viewed as Napoleon's abandonment of those ideals, Beethoven famously erased the dedication and instead presented the work as a broader exploration of heroism itself.

Complementing the “Eroica” on the album is Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, originally conceived as an overture to Fidelio. First composed around 1803, the opera underwent nearly a decade of revision before achieving success in its final 1814 version. In the process, Beethoven wrote four overtures for the work: three now known as the Leonore Overtures, named after the opera's heroine, and a fourth, the Fidelio Overture. Of the four, Leonore No. 3 has become the most celebrated as a standalone concert work. The piece references the dramatic climax of the final act of Fidelio, distilling the essence of Beethoven's heroic-humanist opera into a concentrated fifteen minutes of potent, exhilarating music.

Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first performed together as a trio at the 2014 Tanglewood Festival, playing a program of Brahms's piano trios; their first recording effort, Brahms: The Piano Trios, was released in 2017 to universal critical acclaim, with Gramophone observing that the performances "get straight to the heart of Brahms's music, relishing its pull of opposites."

Emanuel Ax, piano
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Antoine Tamestit,viola

Emanuel Ax
Born to Polish parents what is today Lyvov, Ukrain, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

In fall 2021 he resumed a post-COVID touring schedule that included concerts with the Colorado, Pacific, Cincinnati and Houston symphonies as well as Minnesota, Los Angeles, New York Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. 2022/23 will include a tour with Itzhak Perlman “and Friends” and a continuation of the “Beethoven For 3” touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, this year on the west coast.

In recital he can be heard in Palm Beach, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, Las Vegas and New York and with orchestras in Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Naples, Portland OR, Toronto, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Touring in Europe in the fall and spring includes concerts in Germany, UK, Switzerland and France.

Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Kavakos and Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first two discs have recently been released. He has received GRAMMY® Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004/05 season Mr. Ax contributed to an International EMMY® Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano).

Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University.

Leonidas Kavakos
is recognised across the world as a violinist and artist of rare quality, acclaimed for his matchless technique, his captivating artistry and his superb musicianship as well as for the integrity of his playing. He works with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors and plays as recitalist in the world’s premier recital halls and festivals. He is an exclusive recording artist with Sony Classical.

The three important mentors in his life have been Stelios Kafantaris, Josef Gingold, and Ferenc Rados, with whom he still works. By the age of 21, Leonidas Kavakos had already won three major competitions: the Sibelius Competition in 1985, and the Paganini and Naumburg competitions in 1988. This success led to him recording the original Sibelius Violin Concerto (1903/4), the first recording of this work in history, and which won Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award in 1991.

Kavakos is now an exclusive recording artist with Sony Classics. His latest recording, to be released worldwide in October 2019 in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, is the Beethoven Concerto which he conducted and played with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, coupled with the Beethoven Septet played with members of the orchestra. In the anniversary year, Kavakos will both play and play/conduct the Beethoven concerto with orchestras across Europe and the USA. He will also play the complete Beethoven Sonata cycle in Shanghai and Guangzhou, Milan and Rome, and a number of single Beethoven recitals in various cities including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barcelona, Parma and Copenhagen.

In 2007, for his recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Enrico Pace, Kavakos was named Echo Klassik Instrumentalist of the year. In 2014, Kavakos was awarded Gramophone Artist of the Year.

Further accolades came in 2017 when Kavakos was awarded the prestigious Leonie Sonning Prize – Denmark’s highest musical honour, given annually to an internationally recognised composer, condcutor, instrumentalist or singer. Previous winners include Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Alfred Brendel, Benjamin Britten, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Rubenstein and Dmitri Shostakovich.

August 2019 was a full and rewarding month: after the Verbier Festival where he appeared in recital with Evgent Kissin and conducted the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in a programme in which he played Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Antoine Tamestit, he joined YoYo Ma and Emanuel Ax at the Tanglewood Music Festival for a programme of Beethoven Piano trios, in a duo recital with Ax of Beethoven Sonatas, and in an orchestral concert with the Boston Symphony in which he played and conducted Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Dvorak Symphony No. 7.

Kavakos was also invited as “Artiste Etoile” at the Lucerne Festival where he appeared with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, Vienna Philharmonic with Andes Orozco Estrada, and in recital with Yuja Wang.

In the 2019/20 season, in addition to concerts with major orchestras in Europe and the United States, Leonidas Kavakos will one again join YoYo Ma and Emanuel Ax for three programmes in Carngie Hall comprising Beethoven trios and sonatas. He will undertake two Asian tours, first as soloist with the Singapore Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic and in recital in the NCPA Beijing, and then in the spring he performs with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, prior to playing Beethoven Sonata Cycles in Shanghai and Guangzhou with Enrico Pace.

In recent year, Leonidas Kavakos has succeeded in building a strong profile as a conductor and has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Gürzenich Orchester, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Filarmonica Teatro La Fenice, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. In the forthcoming season he will return to two orchestra where he has developed close ties as both violinist and condcutor: L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. This season he also play/conducts theCzech Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI.

Born and brought up in a musical family in Athens, Kavakos curates an annual violin and chamber-music masterclass in Athens, which attracts violinists and ensembles from all over the world and reflects his deep commitment to the handing on of musical knowledge and traditions. Part of this tradition is the art of violin and bow-making, which Kavakos regards as a great mystery and to this day, an undisclosed secret. He plays the ‘Willemotte’ Stradivarius violin of 1734 and owns modern violins made by F. Leonhard, S.P. Greiner, E. Haahti and D. Bagué.

Yo-Yo Ma
multi-faceted career is testament to his enduring belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, collaborating with communities and institutions to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.

In 2018, Yo-Yo set out to perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello in one sitting in 36 locations around the world that encompass our cultural heritage, our current creativity, and the challenges of peace and understanding that will shape our future. And last year, he began a new journey to explore the many ways in which culture connects us to the natural world. Over the next several years, Yo-Yo will visit places that epitomize nature’s potential to move the human soul, creating collaborative works of art and convening conversations that seek to strengthen our relationship to our planet and to each other.

Both endeavors continue Yo-Yo’s lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to explore how music not only expresses and creates meaning, but also helps us to imagine and build a stronger society and a better future.

It was this belief that inspired Yo-Yo to establish Silkroad, a collective of artists from around the world who create music that engages their many traditions. Through his work with Silkroad, as well as throughout his career, Yo-Yo Ma has sought to expand the classical cello repertoire, premiering works by composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Leon Kirchner, Zhao Lin, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Giovanni Sollima, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and John Williams.

In addition to his work as a performing artist, Yo-Yo has partnered with communities and institutions from Chicago to Guangzhou to develop programs that advocate for a more human-centered world. Among his many roles, Yo-Yo is a UN Messenger of Peace, the first artist ever appointed to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, and a member of the board of Nia Tero, the US-based nonprofit working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and movements worldwide.

Yo-Yo’s discography of more than 100 albums (including 19 Grammy Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. In addition to his many iconic renditions of the Western classical canon, he has made recordings that defy categorization, among them “Appalachia Waltz” and “Appalachian Journey” with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music of Brazil. Yo-Yo’s recent recordings include: “Sing Me Home,” with the Silkroad Ensemble, which won the 2016 Grammy for Best World Music Album; “Six Evolutions — Bach: Cello Suites;” and “Songs of Comfort and Hope,” created and recorded with pianist Kathryn Stott in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yo-Yo’s latest album is “Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5,” with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos.

Yo-Yo was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), the Polar Music Prize (2012), and the Birgit Nilsson Prize (2022). He has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration.

Yo-Yo and his wife have two children. He plays three instruments: a 2003 instrument made by Moes & Moes, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice, and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.

This album contains no booklet.