Piano Trios by Women Composers
Wanting to collect another batch of interesting piano trios - after my posts on Best Piano Trios and Best Piano Trios Part Two -, I searched YouTube and was surprised to find many fantastic works, in many cases still unknown to me, and all by women composers! Several of them had already been included in my post Best Chamber Music by Women Composers, four of them indeed with a piano trio (such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel) but in more cases with other chamber music - and since the harvest was so large and interesting, it seemed a good idea to dedicate a separate post to "Piano Trios by Women Composers." For the sake of completeness, I will also briefly include the four piano trios already discussed in my previous post.
(1) Hélène Liebmann, Grand Trio No. 1 in A major, Op. 11 (ca. 1816)
Marie Hélène Liebmann, née Riese, later Liebert (1795-1869), was born in Berlin in 1795, the second child of a wealthy Jewish bourgeois family. Her father, Meyer Wulff Riess (later Martin Riese), was a wealthy banker. Helene Riese was a child prodigy. She studied with Clementi's pupil Franz Lauska. There is a record of a concert she gave in her hometown of Berlin on February 23, 1806, where she astonished the audience and was hailed as a brilliant pianist. She was also active as a singer and composer. Her Piano Sonata Opus 1 was published when she was 15.
In 1813, Hélène converted to Christianity and married the merchant John Joseph Liebmann. In April 1814, the young couple moved to London, where Hélène took lessons from Ferdinand Ries, a former student of Beethoven. In 1819, the couple was registered as living in Hamburg. There is no evidence of public concert performances during their time in London. In Hamburg, however, Helene Liebmann is known to have appeared as a concert singer. In 1819 - after her husband had also converted to Christianity - they both adopted the Christian-sounding surname "Liebert". There is no information whether she continued to compose after 1819; the next reference to her is in the diary of Clara Wieck (the future Clara Schumann), which states that Liebmann attended a concert of Clara's in Hamburg in 1835.
Helene Liebmann's compositions include two sets of songs, several sonatas and other piano works, two violin sonatas, two piano trios and a piano quartet - the piano is present in all of her works. During her Berlin period, piano sonatas and songs predominated. The focus of her London period was on chamber music. A total of about 20 printed works have survived, which she wrote within seven years.
Her musical style owes much to Mozart and Haydn. The Piano Trio in A major is one of two "Grand Trios" written by Helene Liebmann - there is another one in D major, probably from the same year (1816). The whole piece is full of grace and very evocative of its time.
Find it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FuE2SLAZ5c8
In 1813, Hélène converted to Christianity and married the merchant John Joseph Liebmann. In April 1814, the young couple moved to London, where Hélène took lessons from Ferdinand Ries, a former student of Beethoven. In 1819, the couple was registered as living in Hamburg. There is no evidence of public concert performances during their time in London. In Hamburg, however, Helene Liebmann is known to have appeared as a concert singer. In 1819 - after her husband had also converted to Christianity - they both adopted the Christian-sounding surname "Liebert". There is no information whether she continued to compose after 1819; the next reference to her is in the diary of Clara Wieck (the future Clara Schumann), which states that Liebmann attended a concert of Clara's in Hamburg in 1835.
Helene Liebmann's compositions include two sets of songs, several sonatas and other piano works, two violin sonatas, two piano trios and a piano quartet - the piano is present in all of her works. During her Berlin period, piano sonatas and songs predominated. The focus of her London period was on chamber music. A total of about 20 printed works have survived, which she wrote within seven years.
Her musical style owes much to Mozart and Haydn. The Piano Trio in A major is one of two "Grand Trios" written by Helene Liebmann - there is another one in D major, probably from the same year (1816). The whole piece is full of grace and very evocative of its time.
Find it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FuE2SLAZ5c8
(2) Louise Farrenc, Piano Trio Nr. 1 E flat major Op. 33 (1833-34)
Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a composer, virtuoso pianist, and teacher. Farrenc was one of the most successful women composers of the 19th century, and her reputation was such that in 1842 she was appointed professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory, a position she held for thirty years and one of the most prestigious in Europe.
Farrenc studied composition with Reicha; her husband, Aristide Farrenc, was a flutist, musicologist, and music publisher. At first, in the 1820s and 1830s, she composed exclusively for the piano. Several of these pieces were highly praised by critics, including Robert Schumann. In the 1830s, she tried her hand at larger compositions for chamber ensemble and orchestra. It was during the 1840s that much of her chamber music was written. While the vast majority of Farrenc's compositions were for piano alone, her chamber music is generally regarded as her best work - it remained of great interest throughout her life. Her symphonies, however, have been recorded in recent years and have also attracted much interest. My previous posts about her were dedicated to her Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor and her Third Symphony.
She wrote four trios: two piano trios (Trio in E♭, Op. 33, 1841–44; and Trio in D, Op. 34, 1844), a clarinet trio (Trio in E♭, Op. 44, 1854–56, for piano, clarinet and cello) and a flute trio (Trio in E minor, Op. 45, 1854–56, piano, flute and cello).
Listen to the first piano trio in a performance by Tomomi Hori, Klavier, Désirée Pousaz, Violine, & Kaspar Zwicky, Violoncello. There are 4 movements: I Allegro, II Adagio sostenuto, III Minuetto. Allegro, IV Finale. Vivace.
Farrenc studied composition with Reicha; her husband, Aristide Farrenc, was a flutist, musicologist, and music publisher. At first, in the 1820s and 1830s, she composed exclusively for the piano. Several of these pieces were highly praised by critics, including Robert Schumann. In the 1830s, she tried her hand at larger compositions for chamber ensemble and orchestra. It was during the 1840s that much of her chamber music was written. While the vast majority of Farrenc's compositions were for piano alone, her chamber music is generally regarded as her best work - it remained of great interest throughout her life. Her symphonies, however, have been recorded in recent years and have also attracted much interest. My previous posts about her were dedicated to her Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor and her Third Symphony.
She wrote four trios: two piano trios (Trio in E♭, Op. 33, 1841–44; and Trio in D, Op. 34, 1844), a clarinet trio (Trio in E♭, Op. 44, 1854–56, for piano, clarinet and cello) and a flute trio (Trio in E minor, Op. 45, 1854–56, piano, flute and cello).
Listen to the first piano trio in a performance by Tomomi Hori, Klavier, Désirée Pousaz, Violine, & Kaspar Zwicky, Violoncello. There are 4 movements: I Allegro, II Adagio sostenuto, III Minuetto. Allegro, IV Finale. Vivace.
3. Clara Schumann, Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846)
Clara Schumann (1819-1896), born Clara Josephine Wieck, was a pianist and composer when she married the composer Robert Schumann in 1840. Schumann put his own career first and was very much against Clara's wish to continue her career as a pianist - he needed a housewife (in 16 years of marriage Clara gave birth to 8 children (not to mention the miscarriages she also had), so half the time they were married Clara was pregnant).
Clara Schumann composed her Piano Trio in G Minor in 1846, and although this was a year of great stress for her (with a move to Dresden and her husband's illness), it is a wonderful example of the German Romantic style, personal, intimate and never seeking attention for technical prowess. It is a brilliant composition of a highly poetic nature.
See my post at Best Women Composers for a link to the live performance by the ATOS Trio.
Clara Schumann composed her Piano Trio in G Minor in 1846, and although this was a year of great stress for her (with a move to Dresden and her husband's illness), it is a wonderful example of the German Romantic style, personal, intimate and never seeking attention for technical prowess. It is a brilliant composition of a highly poetic nature.
See my post at Best Women Composers for a link to the live performance by the ATOS Trio.
4. Fanny Hensel, Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 11 (1850)
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) was a musical prodigy, every bit as talented as her famous brother Felix, but 19th-century mores kept her at home. Both her father and brother opposed an active career, and she was only able to play music at concerts in their home - where her 466 compositions were performed. Here is her wonderful Piano Trio in D minor - published only 3 years after her untimely death.
Listen a wonderful performance by the Aletheia Piano Trio (Fei-Fei, piano; Francesca dePasquale, violin ; Juliette Herlin, cello) via my post about this work at Best Women Composers.
Listen a wonderful performance by the Aletheia Piano Trio (Fei-Fei, piano; Francesca dePasquale, violin ; Juliette Herlin, cello) via my post about this work at Best Women Composers.
(5) Emile Mayer, Piano Trio Op 12 in E minor (1861)
Emilie Mayer (1812 - 1883), a student of Carl Loewe and Adolf Bernhard Marx, was probably the first full-time female composer in Germany. With eight symphonies and 15 concert overtures, twelve string quartets, piano chamber music, violin and cello sonatas, and a piano concerto, she ventured into musical genres that were generally considered too difficult for women at the time. Her works were performed in many of Europe's musical centers, earning her the nickname "the female Beethoven. She was in close contact with many musicians of her time; Franz Liszt, among others, expressed his enthusiasm for her work. In "Best Women Composers," I presented her Piano Concerto in B-flat Major.
Emilie Mayer's first Piano Trio in E minor contains the following movements:
I. Allegro
II. Scherzo
III. Un poco Adagio
IV. Finale. Allegro assai
Listen to: Ensemble Le Beau
(6) Amanda Maier, Piano Trio in E-flat major (1873-74)
Amanda Maier (1853 - 1894) was born in Sweden in the musical family of a confectioner. At the age of sixteen, Maier went to study at the Stockholm Conservatory. Her main subject was violin, but she also studied organ, piano, cello, composition and harmony. She graduated in 1872. In 1876, she became engaged to the German conductor and composer Julius Röntgen (about this important composer see my article Classical Music in the Netherlands, part 2). In 1880 Amanda and Julius married and moved to Amsterdam. Although Amanda's performances stopped after the marriage, she continued to stay in musical circles. She became acquainted with Edvard Grieg, Anton Rubinstein, Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms.
See my post in the series "Best Women Composers" for her Violin Sonata in B Minor.
Link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/7xj0l9xbgXE (this is the first movement, but the others movements can also be found at YouTube)
See my post in the series "Best Women Composers" for her Violin Sonata in B Minor.
Link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/7xj0l9xbgXE (this is the first movement, but the others movements can also be found at YouTube)
(7) Elfrida Andrée, Piano Trio No. 2 in G minor (1884)
Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929) was born in the Swedish town of Visby on the island of Gotland. The child of enthusiastic amateur musicians, she was sent to Stockholm to study the organ at the age of 14. A student of Ludvig Norman and Niels Wilhelm Gade, she became a virtuoso, the first female cathedral organist, and the first female conductor and symphonist in Sweden. She worked in Stockholm from 1861 and became organist at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867. For her services she was elected a member of the Swedish Academy of Music. In addition to her musical work, she was politically active and important in the Swedish feminist movement and became the first female telegraphist.
Andrée's organ symphonies are still performed today. She also composed the opera Fritiofs Saga (to a text by Selma Lagerlöf, 1899), several orchestral works, two piano quintets, a piano quartet and two piano trios, as well as violin and piano pieces, a Swedish mass, and many songs and choral works.
The Piano Trio in G minor consists of 3 movements:
- Allegro agitato (G minor)
- Andante con espressione (B flat major)
- Finale. Rondo Allegro risoluto (G major)
Listen to: Askanäs Kammarensemble
(8) Cécile Chaminade, Piano Trio No 2 in A Minor Op. 24 (1887)
She gave her first concert at the age of 18, and from then on her compositions gradually became more popular. After a tentative debut with the premiere of her first piano trio, Opus 11 (1880), orchestral works were premiered in 1888. In 1892, she made her debut in England, where her works became very popular. In 1908 she visited the United States, where she was warmly received by her many admirers. Chaminade's oeuvre is extensive and covers many genres.
Although a relatively early work, Chaminade shows great assurance in her Second Piano Trio of 1887. It is an attractive and elegant piece.
See my post at Best Women Composers for a link to the live performance by the ATOS Trio.
(9) Rosalind Ellicott, Piano Trio No. 1 (1889)
Rosalind Ellicott (1857–1924) was one of the leading female composers of her generation. Ellicott was born in Cambridge; her father was the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol and had no real interest in music. Her mother, on the other hand, was a vocalist and was involved in the founding of the Handel Society of London and the Gloucester Philharmonic Society. From 1874 to 1876, she studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under Frederick Westlake. While there, she also studied for seven years with Thomas Wingham, a pupil of William Sterndale Bennett.
Her first published work was "Sketch" in 1883. Thereafter, she began to compose ambitious works for chorus and orchestra, many of which were performed at Gloucester's music festivals. By the end of the 19th century she became interested in chamber music, apparently hoping for more performance opportunities. Nevertheless, around 1900, she began disappearing from the public eye.
Not many of Ellicott's works have survived to this day. Aside from a few songs and instrumental pieces, the only known surviving published works are the cantatas "Elysium" and "The Birth of Song," as well as two piano trios. Many of her surviving works are in the dense, exquisite Brahmsian style of composition, with heavy textures and rich instrumentation, which is also evident in his chamber music.
The first piano trio has the following movements: 1. Allegro con grazia 2. Adagio-Poco andante-Adagio 3. Allegro brillante
Listen to: Trio Anima Mundi with Rochelle Ughetti, Violin; Noella Yan, Cello; and Kenji Fujimura, Piano
Her first published work was "Sketch" in 1883. Thereafter, she began to compose ambitious works for chorus and orchestra, many of which were performed at Gloucester's music festivals. By the end of the 19th century she became interested in chamber music, apparently hoping for more performance opportunities. Nevertheless, around 1900, she began disappearing from the public eye.
Not many of Ellicott's works have survived to this day. Aside from a few songs and instrumental pieces, the only known surviving published works are the cantatas "Elysium" and "The Birth of Song," as well as two piano trios. Many of her surviving works are in the dense, exquisite Brahmsian style of composition, with heavy textures and rich instrumentation, which is also evident in his chamber music.
The first piano trio has the following movements: 1. Allegro con grazia 2. Adagio-Poco andante-Adagio 3. Allegro brillante
Listen to: Trio Anima Mundi with Rochelle Ughetti, Violin; Noella Yan, Cello; and Kenji Fujimura, Piano
(10) Laura Netzel, Piano Trio Op. 78 (1903)
Laura Netzel (1839 - 1927) was a Finnish-born Swedish composer, pianist,
and conductor. During the 1860’s, Netzel studied piano and voice in
Stockholm,
making her debut at age seventeen and having a performance career of
nearly forty years. During the 1880’s, Netzel studied composition in
Paris. Laura Netzel published over seventy works, including five pieces for
choir, three piano trios, eleven pieces for violin and piano, eight
piano solos, one piece for organ and nearly forty songs. She was
inspired by Wagner's chromatic style.
See my post at Best Women Composers for a link to the live performance by the Trio Lago.
See my post at Best Women Composers for a link to the live performance by the Trio Lago.
(11) Dora Pejačević, Piano Trio in C major op. 29 (1910)
Dora Pejačević (1885-1923) grew up in Našice in east Croatia, in a town of which a significant part was the feudal property of the Pejačević family until 1945. Her father was the Croatian Count Teodor Pejačević, her mother a Hungarian baroness and a trained pianist and singer. Dora Pejačević received her first music lessons in Budapest and Zagreb, and studied further in Dresden and Munich. She was a composition pupil of the obscure English composer Percy Sherwood, but was essentially self-taught. She was widely read in literature and philosophy and her circle of acquaintances included the Viennese journalist and writer Karl Kraus as well as Rainer Maria Rilke. She is considered one Croatia's most important 20th century composers and many of her works, during her lifetime, enjoyed considerable success and were performed throughout Germany, Austria, Hungary and the rest of the Habsburg Empire. She wrote in a late-Romantic style and also composed for orchestra, such as a piano concerto and a very powerful symphony.
In the series "Best Women Composers" I have included her Piano quartet in D minor.
The Piano Trio in C is also an energetic piece of music, with attractive themes and interesting rhythms. Listen to her Piano Trio performed by Teresa Baczewska, piano; Beata Warykiewicz - Siwy, violin; Natalia Kurzac - Kotula, cello. There are the following movements: I mvt. Allegro con moto; II mvt. Scherzo; III mvt. Lento; IV mvt. Finale. Allegro risoluto
In the series "Best Women Composers" I have included her Piano quartet in D minor.
The Piano Trio in C is also an energetic piece of music, with attractive themes and interesting rhythms. Listen to her Piano Trio performed by Teresa Baczewska, piano; Beata Warykiewicz - Siwy, violin; Natalia Kurzac - Kotula, cello. There are the following movements: I mvt. Allegro con moto; II mvt. Scherzo; III mvt. Lento; IV mvt. Finale. Allegro risoluto
(12) Morfydd Owen, Piano Trio (1915)
Morfydd Owen (1891-1918) was a Welsh composer, mezzo-soprano and pianist who left 250 manuscripts
at her tragic death aged 26 (due to a botched appendectomy operation), including orchestral, chamber and choral works,
as well as songs to English, Welsh and French texts. She was a musical child, showing great talent at an early age and received piano lessons early on. While in her teens she appeared as a soloist in a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto. Owen took up her place at the Royal Academy in September 1912 where her
principal study was composition, with piano and singing as second
studies. She received individual composition lessons with Frederick Corder, who taught several other notable British composers. Towards the end of 1916 Owen was introduced to the London Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones and after a brief courtship they married at Marylebone Register Office on 6 February 1917. Though Owen only composed seriously for just over 10 years, she left a legacy of some 250 scores. These include pieces for chamber ensemble, piano, mixed choir and tone poems for orchestra. However, it is her compositions for voice and piano that are regarded as her most important and mature contributions.
The Piano Trio is Owen’s most significant chamber composition.
Listen to: Prism trio at Hartford Women Composers Festival 30th March 2019.
The Piano Trio is Owen’s most significant chamber composition.
Listen to: Prism trio at Hartford Women Composers Festival 30th March 2019.
(13) Germaine Tailleferre, Piano Trio (1916-17)
Germaine Tailleferre was the only female composer in Les Six, a loosely formed group of six composers active in France in the 1920s. Her music is exuberantly energetic and full of melodic imagination. Germaine Tailleferre spent a great deal of time with Maurice Ravel, with whom she also took lessons. During the group's relatively short existence, Les Six's common goal was to react against Impressionist and late-Romantic works. She composed the melodically compelling and boldly rhythmic Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello early on, around 1916-17, and revised it in 1978. Germaine Tailleferre, who died in 1983 at the age of 91, was active to the end of her life and even had a street named after her in Paris.
I. Allegro animato
II. Allegro vivace
III. Moderato
IV. Trés animé
I. Allegro animato
II. Allegro vivace
III. Moderato
IV. Trés animé
Listen to: Morgenstern Trio
(14) Rebecca Clarke, Piano Trio (1921)
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) was born in England to an American father and German mother. After her musical studies with Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music (the first woman to do so), she pursued a career as performer on both violin and viola. She was a prominent concert violist both at home and abroad, and highly active in chamber and symphonic ensembles. In fact, she became one of the first female musicians in a fully professional ensemble, Henry Wood's Halle orchestra.
Rebecca Clarke wrote music in a late romantic, rather chromatic style. Her Sonata for Viola and Piano has been discussed in my blog post The Best Works for Viola, and in Best Women Composers I have presented one her earliest works, the short Morpheus for Viola and Piano.
Composed at a time when Arnold Schoenberg was promoting atonality, Clarke's Piano Trio is conservative in its harmonic language but strikingly original in the way it uses its musical material. The trio is in three movements, linked by a motto theme heard at the beginning and repeated in dramatically varied forms in the following movements.
Rebecca Clarke wrote music in a late romantic, rather chromatic style. Her Sonata for Viola and Piano has been discussed in my blog post The Best Works for Viola, and in Best Women Composers I have presented one her earliest works, the short Morpheus for Viola and Piano.
Composed at a time when Arnold Schoenberg was promoting atonality, Clarke's Piano Trio is conservative in its harmonic language but strikingly original in the way it uses its musical material. The trio is in three movements, linked by a motto theme heard at the beginning and repeated in dramatically varied forms in the following movements.
Listen to: Atos Trio
(15) Henriëtte Bosmans, Trio for Violin, Violoncello and Piano (1921)
Dutch composer and pianist Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952) was the only child of Henri Bosmans, principal cellist of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, and pianist Sara Benedicts. Among her teachers were Arnold Schoenberg and Willem Pijper. During her lifetime she received great honors both as a pianist and as a composer, including being one of the few Dutch musicians to play with the internationally renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra under conductors such as Willem Mengelberg, Pierre Monteux, Sir Adrian Boult and George Szell. The daughter of a Jewish mother, Bosmans was banned from performing and working as a "half-Jew" in May 1940. In the years that followed, she could only perform at illegal house concerts ("zwarte avonden" - black evenings).
Also listen to Bosmans' powerful Cello Sonata in my post at "Best Women Composers."
Also listen to Bosmans' powerful Cello Sonata in my post at "Best Women Composers."
The Piano Trio is a substantial piece, animated by the passion of youth. The movements are:
Allegro con brio
Allegro con brio
Andante moderato
Andante
Listen to Ensemble Le Beau
Listen to Ensemble Le Beau
(16) Helvi Leiviskä, Piano Trio (1924)
Helvi Leiviskä (1902-1982) was a Finnish composer, writer and music educator. In 1927 she graduated in composition from the Helsinki Music Institute (Sibelius Academy), where she studied with Erkki Melartin. She continued her studies in Vienna and then returned to Finland to study with Leevi Madetoja. She began her work as a composer with a debut in 1935 and also worked as a music teacher in private and public schools from 1922 to 1938. In 1933 she accepted a position as librarian at the Sibelius Academy. Her compositions include a piano concerto, three symphonies, a piano quartet, and a violin sonata. Her style can be described as moderate modernism. Leiviskä's work is characterized by philosophical and religious themes, images of nature and narrative structures.
Helvi Leiviskä's Piano Trio is a powerful, youthful work that impresses with its directness of expression and profound sonority. Leiviskä wrote the work while studying at the Helsinki Music Institute and completed it in 1924.
Article in Finnish Music Quarterly.
Listen to: Annemarie Åström, violin; Ulla Lampela, cello; Tiina Karakorpi, piano
Helvi Leiviskä's Piano Trio is a powerful, youthful work that impresses with its directness of expression and profound sonority. Leiviskä wrote the work while studying at the Helsinki Music Institute and completed it in 1924.
Article in Finnish Music Quarterly.
Listen to: Annemarie Åström, violin; Ulla Lampela, cello; Tiina Karakorpi, piano
(17) Amy Beach, Piano trio in A minor, op. 150 (1938)
Amy Beach (1867 - 1944) was the first American woman composer to make a name for herself in music. She was born into a distinguished New England family. She was a child prodigy who began composing at the age of four and gave her first recitals at the age of seven. When she was fourteen, Amy received her only formal compositional training by studying harmony and counterpoint for a year. She received no other instruction and was self-taught, mainly by studying classical pieces such as Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
She made her professional debut in Boston in 1883. After marrying Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a Boston surgeon 24 years her senior, in 1885, she agreed to limit her performances to one public recital a year and devoted herself to composing.
After her husband's death in 1910, she toured Europe as a pianist, performing her own compositions. She was determined to make a name for herself as a pianist as well as a composer. Amy Beach's major compositions include the Mass in E major (1892), the Gaelic Symphony (1893), a violin sonata, a piano concerto, a piano quintet, various choral and chamber works, and an opera. She composed mainly in a romantic idiom often compared to that of Brahms.
See "Best Women Composers" for my post about her Piano Quintet in F sharp minor.
Written when she was 70, the mature style of the Piano Trio is freer and more tonally ambiguous than her early works. Yet Beach still favors a clear, conservative, post-Romantic approach, like many other composers who extended their style into the 20th century despite being considered old-fashioned by the modernists and avant-gardists of their time. In the first movement, there are still echoes of the French style - especially Franck and Debussy - but the next two movements use folk rhythms and tunes from American indigenous peoples. The main theme of the last movement is a common ragtime syncopated rhythm used in cakewalks, a dance that originated on black slave plantations.
She made her professional debut in Boston in 1883. After marrying Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a Boston surgeon 24 years her senior, in 1885, she agreed to limit her performances to one public recital a year and devoted herself to composing.
After her husband's death in 1910, she toured Europe as a pianist, performing her own compositions. She was determined to make a name for herself as a pianist as well as a composer. Amy Beach's major compositions include the Mass in E major (1892), the Gaelic Symphony (1893), a violin sonata, a piano concerto, a piano quintet, various choral and chamber works, and an opera. She composed mainly in a romantic idiom often compared to that of Brahms.
See "Best Women Composers" for my post about her Piano Quintet in F sharp minor.
Written when she was 70, the mature style of the Piano Trio is freer and more tonally ambiguous than her early works. Yet Beach still favors a clear, conservative, post-Romantic approach, like many other composers who extended their style into the 20th century despite being considered old-fashioned by the modernists and avant-gardists of their time. In the first movement, there are still echoes of the French style - especially Franck and Debussy - but the next two movements use folk rhythms and tunes from American indigenous peoples. The main theme of the last movement is a common ragtime syncopated rhythm used in cakewalks, a dance that originated on black slave plantations.
I. Allegro
II. Lento espressivo / Presto
III. Allegro con brio
Listen to: Vuillaume Trio
(18) Joan Trimble, Phantasy Trio (1940)
Joan Trimble (1915-2000) was an Irish composer and pianist. She studied piano with Annie Lord at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, and music at Trinity College, Dublin, and continued her studies at the Royal College of Music, London, until 1940 (piano with Arthur Benjamin and composition with Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams). She first came to prominence as part of a piano duo with her sister Valerie; Joan also composed a number of works for two pianos, which the duo performed. A 1938 recital at the RCM, where they performed three of these works, was her breakthrough. Between 1959 and 1977 she taught piano at the RCM. Joan Trimble's music is conservative for its time. She combined the impressionist harmonic language she had learned from her studies with Annie Lord with melodic and rhythmic inflections derived from traditional Irish music. Her most advanced music is found in the Sonatina for two pianos (1940) and the impressive song cycle The County Mayo (1949). Trimble's music is always melodic, tastefully written, and rewarding for the performer.
Trimble's Phantasy Trio (1940) won the Cobbett Prize for chamber music.
Listen to:Trio BBP (Violin: Olga Berar; Cello: Eugen-Bogdan Popa; Piano: Anamaria Biaciu-Popa)
See: https://youtu.be/LFXjJ3b5Pg4
Auerbach composed her first piano trio in the mid-1990s, while still in her late teens and early twenties. The three-movement work is vivid, accessible, skillfully crafted, and powerfully emotional.
The below video unfortunately only comprises the 3rd movement (played by Delta Piano trio):
Trimble's Phantasy Trio (1940) won the Cobbett Prize for chamber music.
Listen to:Trio BBP (Violin: Olga Berar; Cello: Eugen-Bogdan Popa; Piano: Anamaria Biaciu-Popa)
See: https://youtu.be/LFXjJ3b5Pg4
(19) Lera Auerbach, Piano Trio No. 1 (1992/1996)
Lera Auerbach (born October 21, 1973) is a Soviet-born Austrian-American classical composer, conductor, and concert pianist. Auerbach was born to a Jewish family in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Ural Mountains. She received permission to visit the United States in 1991 for a concert tour; although she spoke no English, she decided to defect so she could stay in the country and pursue her musical career. She graduated from the Juilliard School in New York, where she studied piano (with Joseph Kalichstein) and composition (with Milton Babbitt and Robert Beaser). She also studied comparative literature at Columbia University and earned a piano diploma from the Hanover University of Music. She is also a published, award-winning poet and an exhibiting painter and sculptor. Auerbach has written symphonies, concertos, and large-scale choral works.Auerbach composed her first piano trio in the mid-1990s, while still in her late teens and early twenties. The three-movement work is vivid, accessible, skillfully crafted, and powerfully emotional.
The below video unfortunately only comprises the 3rd movement (played by Delta Piano trio):
(20) Kaija Saariaho, Piano Trio "Light and Matter" (2014)
Kaija Anneli Saariaho (née Laakkonen; born 14 October 1952) is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg, and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her research at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) marked a turning point in her music away from strict serialism towards spectralism. Her characteristically rich, polyphonic textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. In a 2019 composers' poll by BBC Music Magazine, Saariaho was ranked the greatest living composer.
Kaija Saariaho has said that she was inspired to write this work by looking out her window in New York at the changing lights and movements of Morningside Park. The Piano Trio succeeds in capturing the dynamics of movement and kinetic energy through the musical interplay of the three instruments.
Kaija Saariaho has said that she was inspired to write this work by looking out her window in New York at the changing lights and movements of Morningside Park. The Piano Trio succeeds in capturing the dynamics of movement and kinetic energy through the musical interplay of the three instruments.