Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)

B major Piano Trio Op 8

Allegro con brio

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Adagio

Allegro

As a young man Brahms wrote a great deal of chamber music but most of it ended up in the fire as he had very exacting standards. This piano trio was written and published in 1854 when he was 21, but over time Brahms became dissatisfied with it and thirty-six years later he revised the work telling a friend that he ‘did not provide it with a wig, but just combed and arranged it’s hair a little’. He told his dear friend Clara Schumann, ‘I have written my B major trio once more… it will not be so muddled up as it was – but will it be better?’ In fact the revised edition is a third shorter than the original.

The trio opens with a gentle but heart-warming theme in the piano, then adding the cello followed by the violin until they are all playing the rich, sonorous and beautiful tune. It has an expanding second subject which again builds to a dramatic climax.

The Scherzo shares a similar pattern to the Scherzo in the Schubert trio, a playful, skittish theme scurrying along, followed by a waltz-like trio and then returning to the Scherzo.

The Adagio opens with an incredibly gentle conversation between the piano and strings and this is followed by an impassioned melody from the cello to be carried on by the violin and then returning to the opening theme.

The cello introduces the first theme in the finale which is quite agitated and restless. That mood dissolves and the piano takes on a bold second theme with syncopated accompanied strings, before returning to the opening theme.

The writing is thick, bold and intense and it feels like playing a symphony but with only three players. However, it’s worth every bit of energy needed to perform the piece and is much loved in the piano trio repertoire.

Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Piano Trio in Bb

Allegro moderato

Andante un poco mosso

Scherzo: Allegro

Rondo: Allegro vivace

It is difficult to imagine that Franz Schubert received little or no public recognition in his lifetime, but only after his death was he internationally acclaimed. However, he had a wealth of adoring friends who supported him and allowed him the freedom to compose, albeit living a bohemian existence without remuneration for all his work. His output was great and in his lifetime of just 31 years he composed nine symphonies, many operas, twenty quartets and other chamber music plus over 600 songs. He was known affectionately as Schwammerl (Tubby) being short, rotund with curly hair and a dimple in his chin, and when asked what his method of musical composition was, he replied, ‘I finish one piece and begin the next’.

It is believed that this Bb trio, the first of two piano trios, was written in the summer of 1827, the year before he died and the year he visited an ailing Beethoven, but Schubert himself was already a sick man.

The trio opens with a grand theme played by the strings with the piano giving a rhythmic tension of quavers against the triplets in the strings. A beautiful second theme follows and all these ideas are developed in this substantial movement, ending with a short and gentle coda and then a shock of two loud and final chords.

The second movement shows Schubert as the wonderful song writer, but on this occasion the exquisite melodies are taken by a different voice in the three instruments. Melodies, counter-melodies and a contrasting middle section all go to make this a very beautiful movement.

The light and playful Scherzo has an impish feel to it with a contrasting waltz in the trio before returning to the Scherzo.

The last movement is called a Rondo but is not obviously like one. Albert Einstein in his book on Schubert makes the point that the theme of the last movement strongly resembles Schuberts 1815 song, ‘Skolie’. The words being, ‘Let us in the bright May morning take delight in the brief life of the flower, before its fragrance disappears’. A joyous ending to this beautiful trio.