5 For Trio

The ensemble of “trio d’anches” featuring the oboe, clarinet, and bassoon was first established in the 1920s and features on this brand new recording on SACD with the glorious music of Mozart arranged by Ulf-Guido Schäfer. His trio has now been recorded on the big sound of this Super Audio CD - a revelation for specialists in the field of wind chamber music.

"Kakadu Variations" is the nickname given to Ludwig van Beethoven's set of variations for piano trio on the theme "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu" by Wenzel Müller. The Variations was published in 1824 as Opus 121a, the last of Beethoven's piano trios to be published. The work is notable for the contrast between its solemn introduction and the lightweight variations that follow.

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) is a composer difficult to classify. A child of his time he kept aloof from the innovations of the modernists and dodecaphony. As son of a German father and a noble-born Venetian mother he was born in Venice and went to study in Munich. He became famous as an opera composer, his chamber music remained largely neglected.

The Seraphim Trio makes a welcome return to ABC Classics with an album of Beethoven's piano trios. Beethoven's trios are amongst the finest works in the chamber canon, taking the form spawned by Mozart and Haydn and developing it into a musical genre which reached symphonic proportions in its musical language and virtuosity.