Piano Trio in B flat major D.898 (1827)

Nobody knows what inspired Schubert to turn to the piano trio towards the end of 1827 and, having written nothing of the kind for fifteen years, produce two masterpieces in a matter of weeks. It is not unlikely, however, that he had come across Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio – perhaps in the public performance given by Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Josef Linke and Carl Maria von Bocklet the in Vienna in 1825. Certainly, Schubert had those three instrumentalists in mind when he wrote the two trios and he clearly relished their superior musicianship in scoring for them.

While he appreciated the virtuosity of the Schuppanzigh-Linke-Bocklet partnership, as the brilliant opening of the Trio in B flat affirms, he was also confident of their understanding of such poetic inspirations as his suddenly unsettling treatment of the second subject at the end of the exposition and just before the coda of the first movement. Similarly, while he trusted in their ability to sustain a seductive melodic line in the nocturnal main theme of the Andante, he also invested much faith in their ability to realize the emotional insecurity implied by the dramatically changing harmonies in the central development. The contrast between the incisive staccato figuration of the outer sections of the Scherzo and the smooth legato articulation of the charmingly innocent middle section can have been no problem. The ingenious metrical transformations in the Allegro vivace on the other hand called for greater resources of rhythmic wit than even Beethoven had required of them.