More often the Classical rondo (A B A B A; A B A C A) functioned as a movement within a large composition, especially as the finale in a sonata, serenade or concerto. Haydn began composing rondos in the early 1770s; examples are found in his symphonies, string quartets and piano trios. Mozart used the form in a variety of media throughout his career. Beethoven used it in his early chamber works, sonatas and concertos, but later largely abandoned it. A significant innovation of the Classical period is the sonata-rondo, a fusion of rondo design with a sonata-allegro tonal plan. This entails the recapitulation in the tonic of the first episode and, possibly, the replacement of the contrasting central episode (C) with development of earlier material.
The sonata-rondo survived after Beethoven mainly in the finales of concertos (by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Brahms and others). A famous later rondo is Strauss's "Till Eulenspiegel." Mahler's Fifth Symphony has a Rondo-Finale and the third movement of his Ninth Symphony, Rondo-Burleske, is a free, expansive treatment of the Classical rondo.