Piano Trio No. 2 in E‑Flat Major

Schubert’s two piano trios were composed in close proximity towards the end of 1827, around a year before his early death at the age of 31. Like many such twin works, they present two sides of the same coin: the B flat Trio (No. 1) is outgoing and convivial while its E flat counterpart (No. 2) is more determinedly serious and dramatic. The opening gesture of this second trio throws down the gauntlet: a blunt unison figure from which spins a symphonic-scale "Allegro" of gripping power and cogency. The piano trudge of the slow movement recalls the journeyman’s departure at the outset of Winterreise, composed earlier in the year, and becomes the accompaniment for a melody based on a Swedish folk song, first heard in the cello, which is interrupted by a pair of impassioned climaxes. The enigmatic “Scherzo” is a canon, each voice entering in turn in the manner of a round; this incorporates a rather earthier “Trio”. The finale opens unassumingly, its rondo-like theme alternating with squarer march-like music whose repeated-note melody is passed among the three instruments, and with a recollection of the slow movement’s folk song. Following the trio’s first performance Schubert was persuaded to cut almost 100 bars from this ambitious finale to make it more manageable; some recordings restore the discarded music to reveal, in a thrilling display of compositional skill, a passage in which the march-like music is played simultaneously with the slow movement’s folk song.