Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor

Brahms spent the summer of 1886 in the Swiss town of Hofstetten, renting a villa with views over Lake Thun. These idyllic surroundings inspired him to compose three complementary chamber works: the Second Cello Sonata, Second Violin Sonata and Third Piano Trio. In its distilled drama and dark C Minor mood, the trio contrasts starkly with the cello sonata’s grandeur and the violin sonata’s lyricism. The explosive terseness of the work’s opening motif gives rise to a tautly argued first movement, its vehemence only briefly subsiding for a contrasting theme sung by throaty, low unison strings. The second movement, “Presto non assai”, is predominantly hushed and uneasy, rather like the troubled half-sibling of one of Mendelssohn’s lighter scherzo-movements. Brahms notates the slow movement, “Andante grazioso”, in alternating bars of three and two beats; its passages for the two string instruments alone contain the seed of the soundworld of his Double Concerto, composed the following year. The “Allegro molto” finale returns to the turbulence of the opening movement but closes the work by transfiguring its material into sonorous C Major.