Evolution of the Piano Trio

The piano trio genreoriginated in the “trio sonata” of the Baroque Era (mid-17th to mid-18thcenturies), where a solo instrument (usually the violin) dominated theproceedings, supported by keyboards (harpsichord, for the most part) and a bassstringed instrument. But the genre really took off in the Classical andRomantic periodsso much so that professional ensembles ever since have beenable to make their way playing nothing but trios. Milwaukee’s pre-eminent Prometheus Trio,with Timothy Klabunde (violin), Stefanie Jacob (piano) and Scott Tisdel(cello), embarks upon its 11th season this month.

Joseph Haydn(1732-1809), the Classical composer par excellence, wrote a couple dozen earlytrios that, generally speaking, are not considered among his best works; thelatter half of his 45 piano trios, however, are so thought. Unlike theirBaroque predecessors, Haydn’s trios are piano driven, and pianist CharlesRosen, in his book The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, asserts that Haydn’s mature triosare “along with the Mozart concertos, the most brilliant piano works beforeBeethoven.” The Prometheus Trio performs Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 27 in A-FlatMajor, Hob. XV: 14 of 1790.

Johannes Brahms(1833-97) certainly composed fine trios, but it’s a sextet that has been chosenfor the concert. His Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36 (1865) is both quieter andgentler than his first sextet and, unusually for Brahms, contains a stronglypersonal back story. The music, though impeccably restrained and classicallystructured as is de rigueur with Brahms, reflects his relationship with oneAgathe von Siebolda romance that was abruptly broken off by the latter afterBrahms made it quite clear that marriage was not in the cards. In the G MajorSextet he worked through his resulting despondency, noting to a friend, “Here Ihave freed myself from my last love.”

The Prometheus Triois able to perform this work thanks to the transcription for piano trio byTheodor Kirchner (1823-1903), a German composer and friend of Brahms,Mendelssohn, Schumann and others.

Gentleness andelegance imbue every work of French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), but,aged, ill and deaf, he felt he had “come to the end of (his) resources” when,in 1922, his publisher suggested he compose a trio. Fauré’s Piano Trio in DMinor, Op. 120, completed by mid-February 1923, surely proved he had not. Thefirst movement is a rather small-scale elegy. The subsequent Andantino, boththe longest movement and the one Fauré began his composition with, is melodicand full of pathos at its conclusion. Then, in a late surprise from the oldmaster, comes a rambunctious, strongly accented finale. As Richard Freedobserved: “In all three movements, this splendid work reveals (Fauré’s)characteristic qualities, refined to the point of radiant perfection, in bothits lyric sections and its more vigorous ones.”

All three works willbe performed by the Prometheus Trio at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music onSept. 13-14.