Great Piano Trios
I haven't heard many Piano Trios other than Beethoven and Schubert, both of which I love. But I bought Mendelssohn's No. 1 trio today and it is some of the most thrilling music I have ever heard, I couldnt believe how amazing it is.
What are your favourite trios? What would you guys recommend among Romantic and modern stuff? On a slightly different note, anyone know what Mozart's Bach transciptions for string trio are like? I am tempted to buy... but too little $ at the moment.
Replies (25)
On top of those mentioned above, must are the Arensky Trio, the Tchaikovsky trio, the Ravel trio, the Shostakovitch E minor Trio, the Mendelssohn Trio in C minor, and countless others that escape me at the moment.
Cheers!
Lalo and Smetena are both wonderful!
The Mozart transcriptions are beautiful. I've played a couple of them and heard some performed. I would highly recommend them.
My personal favourites: Beethoven 'Archduke' and 'Ghost' trios, Schubert E flat major, Shostakovich e minor,
Carl.
The Schumann trios are beautiful. Although #1 is the most famous and more often performed, my favorite is # 2, and the most recommendable version is by Horszowsky -Menuhin -Casals, live from the Prades festival. It's in a "Music and arts" Boxed set, together with #1 and 3 (different performers:Serkin, Szigeti, Vegh), the 3Brahms trios with Menuhin-Istomin-Casals,4 Beethoven trios ans his cello sonatas, and many recordings by Grumiaux, Kappel, Goldberg, Kempf,Fuchs,Haskil, etc, etc!!. Excellent sound
edit: i am an idiot, nm. i misread that as piano quintets.
Two of my favorites...
Ravel Piano Trio in A minor
Schoenfield : Cafe Music
Good stuff... They're both a bit more modern, but check em out and I'm SURE you'll enjoy them, especially the Schoenfield.
Alex
The Brahms Trios are orchestral and like the symphonies, a full platter of tone, involvement and lush Brahms...Dohnanyi is also neat...The Beethoven are also great...his earliest opus I believe is a trio and shows Ludwig already a master...
Dohnanyi piano trio?. He composed only one trio, and it is his serenade for string trio (there's a definitive version by Heifetz, Primrose and Feuermann). What about Rimsky-Korsakoff's piano trio?. A really huge,great work nobody ever plays!.
Hi,
Another beautiful one that I forgot to mention is the Rachmaninov (Trio Élégiaque). There is also an obscure trio by Debussy, his first composition which is really weird and seldom played.
Cheers!
My favorite trio is Dvorak's Trio # 3 in F minor.
There are two Rachmaninov trios, by the way. I call them The Big One and The Small One (50 min. vs. 15 min.). Both wonderful.
Also check out the ones by Brahms, Dvorak, and Shostakovich (#2 is the famous one).
And Chopin (!)
I just caught the last movement of a Saint-Saens piano trio. I never knew that guy wrote piano trios!
Oh yeah I forgot the Chopin. That is a great trio. Thanks for the suggestions about Dvorak, Schumann, Shostakovich, Ravel, Debussy, et al.!!
I love both of Schubert's, although I prefer number one to number two, even though I think No. 2 is more famous, esp the slow movement.
How do Mozart's and Haydn's rank?
The "war-horses" of the piano trio rep. are: Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Faure, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaik. , (and there is a really cool one by Thuille (sp?) any of those are great. (and please excuse my omission of other ones) my favorites are all three Brahms, and the Schumanns are overlooked and underplayed. The main problem is finding a pianist who can play all of the ******* notes! Don't forget quartets and quintets, but same story.. find an awesome pianist. (see other thread about musicians who marry each other... a good pianist is hard to find!)
Hi,
There are several good Mozart and Haydn Trios, but they are not on the same scale as the Beethoven. There are several great and justly famous Haydn trios, the two most well-known being the "Gypsy" Trio and the F major. For Mozart, I don't know. I remember a beautiful C major Trio. There is a lot of rep from these two composers. Just have to check it out.
Other great trios that are not as often played are the Arensky Trio (great piece) and the Turina Trio.
Cheers!
All trios mentioned are wonderful. In fact all piano trios are fun to play and to listen to. But do not forget the haunting Glinka "Trio Pathetique". Get it, if you can,with the Oistrakh trio, just for the strong magnetic playing of Oistrakh.
The Archduke Trio by Beethoven is my favorite piece of music. Stern/Rose/Istomin trio does a wonderful. Hefetz/Feuermann/Rubnistein is also very good.
For those of you going to ENCORE school for strings this summer, my piano trio will be opening the season with the Rachmaninoff Trio Elegiaque No. 2 in d minor, and performing Shostakovich e minor at another point during the summer. Two works that are deserving of more performances...
On the Mozart/Bach you mentioned...they are 6 preludes (adagios) and fugues. 5 of the fugues by JS Bach, 1 by WF Bach. Also 2 adagios by JS and 4 by Mozart. There's a good recording by the St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble mixed in with the other Mozart trios and duos, all played by Arthur Grumiaux and friends. It's a 2-cd set on Philips.
The adagios and fugues are nice pieces, but you may not want to listen to more than 2 or 3 in a sitting.
Does anyone know where to get the sheet music to the two-movement sonata for string trio KV266? It's for 2 violins and cello and I haven't been able to find the music anywhere.
As for piano trios, the Beaux Arts play Beethoven well, as do Perlman/Ashkenazy/Harrell and Heifetz/Rubinstein/Feuermann (no big surprise)
Hmm didn't Mozart write an Adagio and Fugue for string quartet late in life? I heard the Italian quartet play it, and it sounds like late Beethoven -- dark and not unlike the Grosse Fugue. Its not a Bach transcription is it? I never knew Mozart had this heavy, contrapuntal side... I think its really neat how almost all the great classical-era composers (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) had this interest in the dense counterpoint of the Baroque that ran in the shadows of their more popular fare...
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April 17, 2005 at 02:36 AM · Dvorak's trios are fantastic(Dumky is my personal favorite) Also, the Ives and Shostakovich trios are classics for modern trios. All three Brahms trios are sublime, especially(for me) the C Major, but the B major is the best known.