The history of the piano trio is a story of the changing relationship between its three instruments. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the violin and the cello had already attained a degree of perfection that remains a benchmark for luthiers to this day. The piano, from which the genre takes its name, was only just taking its first steps on its three slender legs. Early trios were often associated with domestic music-making, and it was the piano part – sometimes played by the composer himself – that presented the greatest challenge. Joseph Haydn’s Piano Trio in A major is a good example of this stage in the genre’s development: the piano carries the musical argument, the cello reinforces the bass line, and the violin enters into dialogue with the pianist’s right hand. In Haydn’s later works, written in London towards the end of the 18th century, such as the Piano Trio in E flat minor, this balance begins subtly to shift, and the roles of the instruments evolve in increasingly surprising ways.
In the following century, the piano trio became a space for a much more equal dialogue between the three instruments. Antonín Dvořák's Piano Trio in E minor ‘Dumky’, is one of the most interesting examples of this transformation. It was the farewell work with which the composer set out on a tour of Czech towns and cities before his celebrated departure for the United States.
The enduring vitality of the piano trio is reflected in the existence of ensembles as outstanding as Trio Gaspard. It is for artists of this calibre that new works continue to be written, including Paul Wiancko’s Piano Trio, composed a few years ago, which the ensemble will perform in Warsaw.
Bartłomiej Gembicki