Piano Trio No. 2 (Mendelssohn)

Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 was composed in 1845 and published in February 1846.^[1] The work is scored for a standard piano trio consisting of violin, cello and piano. Mendelssohn dedicated the work to the violinist Louis Spohr, who played through the piece with the composer at least once.

Movements

The trio has four movements:

Allegro energico e con fuoco (C minor)
Andante espressivo (E-flat major)
Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto (G minor)
Finale: Allegro appassionato (C minor, ending in C major)

A typical performance lasts just under 30 minutes.

A notable feature of the finale of this work is its use of the melody of a chorale taken from the sixteenth-century Genevan psalter, "Herr Gott Dich Loben Wir, " as the culminating melody. The tune is known in English as Old Hundredth from its association with the 100th Psalm and is commonly sung to the lyrics "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow." Bach used the chorale as the basis for Cantata 130, BWV 130, also known as "Herr Gott Dich Loben Wir," as the theme in the contrapuntal first movement and as the unadorned chorale in the last. The chorale in the finale of the piano trio has occasionally and erroneously been identified as Vor Deinen Tron, which pictures humans before the Throne of God, a dark and serious chorale as opposed to the triumphal Old Hundredth. Bach wrote the chorale prelude Vor Deinen Tron on his deathbed (BWV 668). It was published as an addendum to the unfinished Art of the Fugue, and in the collection known as the Leipzig Chorales.

The opening theme of the finale was adopted by Brahms for the Scherzo of his Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5, and Brahms also used the opening of the first movement of this trio as the basis for the piano line in the finale of his Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60.

References

↑ See Mendelssohn Essays, p. 245, at Google Books (2013), ed. R. Larry Todd, Routledge, Part II.7. The Chamber Music of Mendelssohn: drafted 1845, retouched during the summer, sent in February 1846 with a dedication to Spohr and published the same month by Breitkopf and Novello.

External links

Piano Trio No. 2: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Performance of Piano Trio No. 2 by the Claremont Trio from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

Chamber music by Felix Mendelssohn

String quartets	String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 12 String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44, No. 1 String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2 String Quartet No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 44, No. 3 String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81 12 Fugues for String Quartet (1821) String Quartet in E-flat major (1823)

String quintets and octets	String Quintet No. 1 in A major, Op. 18 String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87 Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20

String sonatas	Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 45 Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58 Viola Sonata in C minor (1823-4) Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4 Violin Sonata in F major (1820) Violin Sonata in F major (1838)

Piano trios, quartets and sextets	Piano Trio in C minor (1820) Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1 Piano Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 2 Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor, Op. 3 Piano Quartet in D minor (1821) Piano Sextet in D major, Op. 110

Works for clarinet	Clarinet Sonata in E-flat major (1824) Concert Piece No. 1 in F minor, Op. 113 Concert Piece No. 2 in D minor, Op. 114

List of compositions by Felix Mendelssohn

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