Jo Talbot celebrates the ‘Mozart of the 19th century’ as she searches out the finest recordings of this masterful work for piano, violin and cello
The work
Mendelssohn’s talents as both a performer and composer were prodigious and precocious – gifts that inspired spellbinding works such as the Octet, written, remarkably, at 16 years old. It’s no coincidence then that when reviewing the D minor Piano Trio in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Robert Schumann claimed that Mendelssohn was the ‘Mozart of the 19th century’ and that in this work he achieved a ‘sustained interweaving of themes and sure mastery of form’, as well as a ‘lively excitement and joyful brilliance’.
The Trio was premiered at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 1 February 1840, with the composer himself as pianist, playing alongside violinist Ferdinand David and cellist Carl Wittmann. In his Life of Mendelssohn, WA Lampadius recalled the exhilaration of hearing this work for the first time: ‘It is a true mirror of Mendelssohn in his most spiritual minded and deepest mood. The Trio was received with tumultuous applause.’
From its first airing, the work was a real crowd-pleaser, with dazzling virtuosity matched by compelling melodic charm. An unsettled turbulence infuses the music, which nevertheless saves a convincing optimism for the end of the Finale. The piano part was obviously conceived for his own skills, which were legion. In a letter to his sister Fanny, Mendelssohn reveals the piano part for the first London performance in 1844 had not materialised, necessitating him playing the music from memory at a time when this was rarely done. ‘Never mind,’ he said to the page turner. ‘Just put a book on the piano and turn from time to time so I don’t look as though I played by heart.’ It was another example of his brilliance.
Accomplished as a violinist and viola player, an international level pianist, chess player and painter, it seemed as if there was nothing at which Mendelssohn couldn’t excel. But the completion of a trio took a long time to reach fruition. In 1832 he confided to Fanny that he was hoping in the near future to compose a couple of good trios… yet it was six years later, after he wrote to his friend Ferdinand Hiller, that he embarked on this ve
