Beethoven's decision to delay for three years the publication of his ‘more important works’, until he was satisfied that they would make an impact in Viennese musical circles, was a shrewd one. Prince Lichnowsky was determined to do what he could to help, and is thought to have paid for three advertisements (9, 13, 16 May 1795) in the Wiener Zeitung announcing the publication by Mathias Artaria of the three piano trios, op. 1. Subscriptions were invited and the response was so enthusiastic that the contract between Beethoven and Artaria was signed soon afterwards and the first printed copies appeared in late August.

The Lichnowskys must have been busy lobbying their relations and friends, because the final list of 123 subscribers included a number of people from their circle who had actively supported Haydn and Mozart in the past, and would support Beethoven no less actively in the years to come, and receive dedications from him. Several ordered more than one copy of the trios, the Thun family of Prague (Princess Lichnowsky's relations) took twenty-five copies between them and the Prince's brothers and their respective wives an enthusiastic twenty-seven; a remarkable tribute to the young Beethoven and the powerful impression he had already created in Viennese musical circles. Further copies were made available on general sale and the trios became so popular that several other publishers decided to print them, with twenty new editions appearing over the next thirty years. Never was an opus 1 more eagerly awaited or more warmly welcomed at its premiere.

The trios were probably composed, or at least extensively revised, between 1793 and early 1795 and were dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky. Some subscribers, especially those who were regularly invited to concerts at the Lichnowsky's palace, would have heard them played long before they were published and word must have got around that, for all his eccentricities, the brilliant improviser and pianist from Bonn was an exciting composer as well – perhaps even Mozart's spiritual heir, as the Lichnowskys firmly believed, and as Beethoven's teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, and his early patron, Count Waldstein, had already predicted.