Piano Trio in C minor, Op.101

Apart from a mutual admiration for the waltzes of Johann Strauss, Brahms and Ravel had little in common. They did agree, however, that the most effective way to score a piano trio was not to attempt give the three unequal instruments an equal voice but to present them in a basically two-part texture, with the superior weight of the piano on the one hand balanced by the violin and cello on the other. The third and last of Brahms’s piano trios, which was written in the composer’s country retreat at Lake Thun in 1886, is a classic of this particular kind.

The violin and cello for the most part act together. One of the most inspired events in the first movement is the introduction of the lyrical second subject on violin and cello in octaves; one of the most exciting is the climax, just before the recapitulation, where they combine their resources to balance the dramatic resources of the piano. Such passages as that in middle section of the Presto non assai scherzo, where violin and cello pass the melodic line to and from each other in rhythmic unison with the pianist’s left hand, are rare: the outer sections are more characteristic. A particularly vivid example of the two-sided texture is offered by the Andante grazioso, where the main theme is introduced by violin with an arpeggio accompaniment on the cello and is then repeated by the piano alone - and the pattern continues throughout. At the beginning of the last movement the violinist is separated from the cello but the duality is quickly restored and prevails through the more lyrical second subject and the lightly scored development section. They are separated again on the recapitulation of the first subject and at the beginning of the coda, but in this last case only to prepare for a mutually happy ending in C major.

Gerald Larner©