Trio Gesellschaftslehre

Since it was founded in 2015, this vivacious trio has revelled in big ideas and committed itself to refreshing great works of the piano trio repertory with a new dynamic. Following its debut recording of the complete Beethoven piano trios, no less, Trio Sōra has now delved into all that Brahms has to offer in the oeuvre for its second album, this Nme on the La Dolce Volta label.

In their debut album, the Sakuntala Trio presents the world premiere recording of Franz Schubert’s String Trio in B-flat major, D.471, in this innovative and compelling completion by Professor Brian Newbould. Of this first trio, only the first movement and the beginning of the slow movement, were penned by Schubert, before he abandoned the work, leaving a gem of a fragment. The album also features the second version of Schubert’s String Trio in B-flat major, D.581, together with a selection of Peter Warlock’s transcriptions of Henry Purcell’s Three-Part Fantasias.

Trio con Brio Copenhagen returns to Orchid Classics with a triptych of Russian piano trios: two works by Shostakovich framing music by Arensky. These Russian composers lived through turning points in their country’s history. Arensky died in 1906, the year in which Shostakovich was born, and their output charts the trajectory of Russian and Soviet political and artistic history during those years. Arensky’s ardent Piano Trio No.1 was written in 1894, when Russian Romanticism was at its peak. Inspired by young love, the 17-year-old Shostakovich wrote his Piano Trio No.1.

Inspired by the great Romantic works of the piano trio repertoire, the Nebelmeer Trio – named after the emblematic painting by Caspar David Friedrich – embark on a joint exploration of a turmoiled romanticism. Composed ten years apart by two composers with a 20 year age difference, the trios for piano, violin and cello featuring in this album epitomize the quintessence of French Romantic music of the late 19th century.

The three String Trios, Op. 9 were composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1797–98. He published them in Vienna in 1799, with a dedication to his patron Count Johann Georg von Browne (1767–1827). They were first performed by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh with two colleagues from his string quartet. According to the violinist and conductor Angus Watson, these were probably Franz Weiss on viola and either Nikolaus Kraft or his father Anton on cello. Each of the trios consists of four movements.

The Neave Trio’s programme Rooted features a range of works based on folk music. Smetana’s distinctive nationalistic style was largely based on the inclusion of bohemian rhythmic and melodic elements, and he was acclaimed in his native Bohemia as the father of Czech music. His Trio in G minor was composed in 1855 as a response to the death of his four-year old daughter and shows the influence of Liszt.