Our 2009/2010 Season

The last six piano trios represent the summit of Mozart’s writing in the genre and the E Major K. 542 stands at the apex of that summit. Written in Vienna in the extraordinary summer of 1788, it shares many traits with his last three symphonies, composed around the same time. Indeed, elements of the Jupiter Symphony can be found in the melodies of the last movement. And yet for all its grand ties to Mozart’s major works, the E Major Piano Trio is highly restrained and has more of the character of Mozart’s earlier chamber music.

At the center of the work stands an exquisite Andante grazioso that features lovingly sung violin solos. Its grace and poise are almost Schubertian in character and the constant return to a gentle melody suggests a certain timeless quality. Framing this middle movement are two Allegros featuring a happy and optimistic character which could well point to a Mozart fresh from the successes of his new opera Don Giovanni, premiered in 1787. A contrapuntal web of virtuoso scales that rocket upwards is woven in the opening Allegro, where it contrasts a gently lilting theme, displaying a fine sense of rhythmic timing. The structurally, harmonically, and chromatically more complex final Allegro portrays a wealth of melodic invention, and gives the impression of a symphonic movement transcribed for three parts. Opening with the simplicity of a Clementi sonatina, it presents a number of themes, freely introduced, that lead through a successive variety of moods towards a joyful end.

Ravel’s Piano Trio seems to have been a particularly troublesome work to him. In 1914, the First World War had broken out, Ravel was anxious to serve his country, and became an ambulance driver before he was wounded and later discharged. He wrote: "The thought that I would go away forced me to do five months’ work in five weeks. I have finished my Trio".

The lovely first movement, Modéré, is a masterpiece of musical economy, derived from a Basque folk dance. Ravel has the violin and cello play their lines in widely spaced octaves, bracketing the piano, achieving unique texture and sonority. The second scherzo-like movement, Pantoum, is based on a Malaysian special form of verse in quatrains, where each stanza repeats as its first and third line the second and fourth line of the preceding stanza. The piano opens with a spiky first theme, while the strings respond in double octaves with the smoother second theme. The third movement is Passacaille: Très large, felt by some to be the highlight of the Trio. Here Ravel uses the Passacaglia, a slow Baroque dance, usually in triple meter where the melody, in this instance given to the piano then passed on to the cello, undergoes continuous variation. It is in this movement that the work builds to its emotional climax. The last movement, Finale: Animé opens with those marvelous "squeaky wheel" sounds, followed by a variant of the first movement theme, and capped by Ravelian fanfares in a brilliant coda.

Schubert began the Piano Trio in B flat major in the middle of 1827, almost exactly 15 years after his sole earlier piano trio work, also in B flat major, but written just as a single movement by that 15-year old pupil of Antonio Salieri. In marked contrast to that old student work, this late Trio Op. 99 shows Schubert nearing the very end of both career and life, and fully aware of the scope of his powers.

The opening Allegro Moderato is happy and carefree, and its bubbly opening theme is at first property of the strings but is soon turned over to the piano, emulating the violin/cello octaves while strings take over the bouncing accompaniment. A heartwarming second melody in the cello assumes an almost heroic posture when it recurs in the development. Knowing Schubert, the melody of the E flat major Andante un poco mosso is possibly a reflection of the famous Adagio cantabile of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. The direction in which Schubert heads with this little gem of a melody, however, is entirely his own. It is in ABA form, with a central portion offering snappy rhythms and a decorated melody, in sharp contrast to the simple opening and closing sections around it. The Scherzo next returns to the good-natured B flat major of the first movement, but its trio section recaptures something of the melodic composure of the Andante. Schubert calls the last movement a Rondo, but it is far less a rondo than a sonata-allegro form. The violin starts things off with an ebullient tune saturated with long/short-short rhythms, as Schubert loved. The development section revels in the ingenious and intricately woven counterpoint that is unique to late Schubert.