Piano Trio in D minor, Op.63

Mit Energie und Leidenschaft (Energetic and passionate)

Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch (Lively, but not too quick)

Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung (Slow, with inward feeling) -

Mit Feuer (Fiery)

According to Schumann his D minor Piano Trio was the product of “a time of gloomy moods.” Written in a difficult period in 1847, it certainly has its emotional problems but the eventual solution to them is prophesied at a point as early as the middle of the first movement. Up to that point the gloomy mood prevails, not least in the urgent first subject introduced in D minor by violin over rolling piano arpeggios in the opening bars. So the sudden and complete change in atmosphere in the middle of the movement – where the tempo relaxes a little and a sublimated version of the main theme is introduced in attenuated whispers from the bridge of the cello and then the violin –    is a significant if short-lived event.

The obsessive Lebhaft scherzo scarcely relaxes the pressure. But where Schumann’s “gloomy mood” is given full expression is in the profoundly elegiac slow movement, beginning with a lamenting arioso uttered by the violin over sombre A minor harmonies on the piano. Even here, however, there is room for hope in a slightly quicker though no less melodious and no less beautifully written middle section. The definitive change of mood is signalled by the confident D major opening of the last movement and confirmed in the long acceleration towards the end.

Mit Energie und Leidenschaft (Energetic and passionate)

Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch (Lively, but not too quick)

Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung (Slow, with inward feeling) -

Mit Feuer (Fiery)

According to the composer, the D minor Piano Trio was the product of “a time of gloomy moods.” Written in a difficult period in 1847, it certainly has its emotional problems but the eventual solution to them is prophesied at a point as early as the middle of the first movement. Up to that point the gloomy mood prevails, not least in the urgent first subject introduced in D minor by violin over rolling piano arpeggios in the opening bars. So the sudden and complete change in atmosphere in the middle of the movement - where the tempo relaxes a little and a sublimated version of the main theme is introduced in attenuated whispers from the bridge of the cello and then the violin - is a significant if short-lived event.

The obsessive F major scherzo scarcely relaxes the pressure. But where Schumann’s “gloomy mood” is given full expression is in the profoundly elegiac slow movement, beginning with a lamenting arioso uttered by the violin over sombre A minor harmonies on the piano. Even here, however, there is room for hope in a slightly quicker though no less melodious and no less beautifully written middle section in F major. The definitive change of mood is sigalled by the confident D major opening of the last movement and confirmed in the long acceleration towards the end.

Mit Energie und Leidenschaft (Energetic and passionate)

Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch (Lively, but not too quick)

Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung (Slow, with inward feeling) -

Mit Feuer (Fiery)

The first Schumann Piano Trio to be completed was Clara Schumann’s in F minor, Op.17, which she wrote between May and September in 1846. Although she promptly dismissed it as “effeminate and sentimental,” her husband - who had had problems with his Phantasiestücke for piano trio four years earlier and was still to revise it to his satisfaction - was clearly impressed by Clara’s achievement here. Certainly, within a year of encountering her Piano Trio, Robert Schumann had started on two of his own. The D minor, Op.63, was ready in time for a private first performance on Clara’s birthday on 13 September 1847 and the F major, Op.80, followed less than two months later.

According to the composer, the D minor Piano Trio was the product of “a time of gloomy moods,” whereas the F major was “more charming…more seductive.” The distinction between the two works is by no means as clear as that, however. The earlier work definitely has its emotional problems but the eventual solution to them is prophesied at a point as early as the middle of the first movement. Up to that point the gloomy mood prevails. It is very evident in the urgent first subject introduced in D minor by violin over rolling piano arpeggios in the opening bars and not much less so in the elusively syncopated, chromatically devious second subject quietly infiltrated by the piano in F major. The intense contrapuntal activity both here in the exposition and in the greater part of the masterfully extended development section increases the pressure.

So the sudden and complete change in atmosphere in the middle of the movement - where the tempo relaxes a little, where the soft pedal is applied to an ostinato of F major harmonies high on the piano, and where apparently new melodic material is introduced in attenuated whispers from the bridge of the cello and then the violin - is a significant event. In fact, the material is not so much new as, with its prominent rising fourths, a sublimation of the first subject. Although it is quickly swept away as reality returns, it is recalled in D major, more briefly but even more significantly, just before the emphatically D minor ending.

The F major scherzo, which is based on an impulsive theme derived from the dotted rhythms and rising inflections of a subsidiary theme from the first movement, scarcely relaxes the pressure. Its obsessive quality is not relieved either by a short trio section in contrapuntal pursuit of the same theme with its dotted rhythms smoothed out into even crotchets.

Where Schumann’s “gloomy mood” is given full expression is in the profoundly elegiac slow movement. Recalling perhaps the sobbing recitative in the Cavatina of Beethoven’s Op.130, the violin breathes a lamenting arioso over sombre A minor harmonies on the piano. The cello offers a sympathetic comment in a still more shapely melody eloquently voiced in its upper register, the violin responding with a chromatic counterpoint modestly drawn below it. Even here, however, there is room for hope in a slightly quicker though no less melodious and no less beautifully written middle section in F major. The A minor opening section is duly recalled but somehow, after all but losing its sense of harmonic direction, ends on a quiet chord of A major.

The last movement follows without a break. Its stirring first subject is clearly derived from the opening theme of the work but, equipped with the frankly diatonic intervals and the D major harmonies briefly prophesied in the first movement, it is directly opposed to it in emotional demeanour. Indeed, in spite of a slightly worrying second subject in B minor and a poignant central episode in E minor, the confidence radiated by the first subject proves to be not only unshakable but also, in the long acceleration towards the end, inexhaustible in inspiration.

Gerald Larner©