Schumann: Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op. 80

Frequent collaborators Leif Ove Andsnes, violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff record three of Robert Schumann’s Piano Trios for this 2-CD set. The trio have recorded Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63, Piano Trio No. 2 in f and Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor.

Schumann’s three piano trios were written over a short four-year period (1847–1851) with the first two dating from just a few months apart in 1847.

The First Piano Trio is often regarded as the strongest work of the three, and although it was conceived as a pair with the Second Piano Trio, they differ markedly in tone, with the first having a much darker, and more brooding quality in comparison to the sunnier second.

Schumann’s third and final piano trio was written in 1851, soon after the composer and his family had moved to Düsseldorf. Unfortunately it wasn’t a happy move, and Schumann was beginning to experience symptoms of the mental decline that would lead to his committal to a mental hospital in 1854, and his death two years later.

Michael Gurevich writes: “We have always loved this music for its overwhelming sincerity and serious nature, and are to this day puzzled as to why the trios by Schumann's colleagues, Brahms and Mendelssohn, are so much more often performed than his. Schumann's trios are in no way less attractive than their contemporaries, arguably more skillfully written, and much more extraordinary in their scope.”

Grief overshadowed 1847 for Schumann: dear friend Fanny Mendelssohn died of a stroke in May; the following month his fourth child Emil died at just 16 months and Mendelssohn himself died in November.

This grief permeates the first piano trio with its desperate and yearning melancholy, despite its masterful use of contrasts and optimistic ending. With its symphonic sweep and brilliant counterpoint, this is one of Schumann’s great inspirations, leading Clara his wife to comment: ‘The first movement is one of the most beautiful that I know’, when they first performed it on her birthday in September.

Schumann began working on the second trio before he had completed the first, and in her diary Clara noted: ‘I love it passionately and keep on wanting to play it!’. In the key of F major, it certainly makes a dramatic contrast to the first, lit with high spirits and a breezy spaciousness. Schumann himself commented that ‘it makes a friendlier and more immediate impression.’

Formed in 2003 at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Rhodes Piano Trio won 2nd Prize at the 2011 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Selected for representation by YCAT in 2010, the Trio has performed widely at venues and festivals across the UK and abroad, giving recitals at Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall, Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne Recital Centre, the Aldeburgh, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Cordes sur Ciel, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern and Schwetzinger Festivals.

They have appeared on BBC Radio 3, SWR2 in Germany and ABC Classic FM in Australia. During the 2011/12 season the Trio were Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Duncan Gifford is one of Australia´s most notable concert pianists, Violinist Susan Collins is head of strings at the University of Newcastle and former Deputy Concertmaster with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and Sue-Ellen Paulsen has been principal cellist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra since 1986.

The Benvenue Fortepiano Trio concludes its acclaimed and ear-opening traversal of period-instrument performances of Schumann's Piano Trios, supplemented with the Piano Quartet and Kinderszenen.

The Benvenue Fortepiano Trio's acclaimed accounts of Schumann's First and Third Piano Trios opened the ears of chamber music devotees with the crystalline textures of its period instruments and the drawing-room intimacy of its interpretations. Anchored by the enterprising violinist Monica Huggett who has produced numerous chart-topping recordings and a Grammy® nomination for AVIE, the Trio completes Schumann's canon for the genre, complementing the Second Trio with the Piano Quartet and casting the spotlight on Eric Zivian and his mellifluous 1841 instrument with his rendition of Schumann's beloved Kinderszenen.

Following a successful release of piano trios by Mendelssohn, Audite now presents its second recording of the Swiss Piano Trio, featuring Robert Schumann’s piano trios in SACD format.

Composed in 1847, these two works represent significant contributions to the history of the genre as unjustly neglected masterpieces of 19th -century chamber music. Future releases will include Schumann’s Piano Trio Op. 110 alongside the Fantasiestücke Op. 88 and the Piano Trio Op. 17 by Clara Schumann.

The Swiss Piano Trio has won prizes at several competitions, including the International Chamber Music Competition Caltanissetta and the Austrian Johannes Brahms. Since its foundation in 1998, the ensemble has enjoyed a busy performing schedule with concerts in over 35 countries. The Trio performs chamber music in the most prestigious concert halls across the globe; and as an ensemble of soloists, the three musicians regularly appear with renowned orchestras. Numerous recordings for radio, television broadcasts and on disc document the artistic activities of the ensemble.

The present album, number nine in Eric le Sage’s valiant Schumann edition, is devoted to the trios with piano, a favourite formation of the 19th Century that combines the economy of chamber music with the prestige of instrumental music. He is accompanied by regular partners Gordan Nikolitch and Christophe Coin with a guest appearance from Paul Meyer on clarinet for Op. 56.