Felix Mendelssohn, German composer, pianist, musical conductor, and teacher, was one of the most-celebrated figures of the early Romantic period. In his music Mendelssohn largely observed Classical models and practices while initiating key aspects of Romanticism—the artistic movement that exalted feeling and the imagination above rigid forms and traditions. Among his most famous works are Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826), Italian Symphony (1833), a violin concerto (1844), two piano concerti (1831, 1837), the oratorio Elijah (1846), and several pieces of chamber music. He was a grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.
Felix was born to Jewish parents, Abraham and Lea Salomon Mendelssohn, from whom he took his first piano lessons. Though the Mendelssohn family was proud of their ancestry, they considered it desirable in accordance with 19th-century liberal ideas to mark their emancipation from the ghetto by adopting the Christian faith. Accordingly, Felix, together with his brother and two sisters, was baptized in 1816 as a Lutheran. In 1822, when his parents were also baptized, the entire family adopted the surname Bartholdy, following the example of Felix’s maternal uncle, who had chosen to adopt the name of a family farm.
Like Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a prolific composer of chamber music, especially of pieces for the piano. Mendelssohn’s two piano trios, both written in the last decade of his life, are among his finest works and rank as two of the greatest examples of a genre explored by composers ranging from Mozart to Shostakovich (and beyond).
The first trio was composed in the summer of 1839. Cast in four movements, it shares the same key – D minor – as the Second Piano Concerto, written two years prior. The first movement opens with a passionate cello melody, accompanied by a syncopated figure in the piano. The violin eventually joins in and the ensemble proceeds to develop elements of the opening tune. Throughout, the piano writing is decidedly virtuosic: Mendelssohn’s close friend Ferdinand Hiller apparently encouraged him in this direction, which lends the Trio a rather progressive feel for its era.
The slow second movement brings to the fore Mendelssohn’s exquisite melodic gifts. This is essentially a song without words for three instruments, each of which is provided moments that showcase their lyrical capabilities. The contrasting middle section is filled with melancholy gestures and a pulsing triplet accompaniment; the return of the opening material in the violin’s high register over cello accompaniment is one of the Trio’s many highlights.
In the third movement, Mendelssohn wrote a movement that recalled the style and character of his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (and foreshadowed the brilliant incidental music he would compose for the same play just three years later), writing a lithe, agile scherzo filled with color and good humor.
The opening of the finale returns to the rather grim sound world of the first movement, commencing with a driving, march-like rhythm in D minor. Gradually, the spirit of the slow second movement infuses this material with a good dose of lyricism and it is transformed into a flowing melodic gesture. After a turbulent development and recapitulation, the coda dispels the gloom of D minor with a radiant turn to D major. In lesser hands, this type of gesture can sound perfunctory or rudimentary; here, it’s the perfect summation of all that has come before, rounding out one of Mendelssohn’s most substantial chamber works on a note of triumph.
Piano Trio notes appear with kind permission from Jonathan Blumhofer.