Piano Trio in G Minor, Opus 17
CLARA SCHUMANN
Born September 13, 1819, Leipzig
Died May 20, 1896, Frankfurt am Main

In a diary entry written at age 20, Clara Schumann made clear her mixed feelings about composing, and in the process she spelled out some of the difficulties facing any woman who wished to compose in the nineteenth-century : "I once thought that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose-not one has been able to do it, and why should I expect to? It would be arrogance, although, indeed, my father led me into it in earlier days." Yet Clara continued to compose, and over the next seventeen years she wrote a small number of works that include a Piano Concerto in A Minor, much piano music, and some graceful songs. But her list of opus numbers runs only to 23, and with the death of her husband Robert in 1856 she stopped composing completely. Thereafter, the demands of being a single mother to seven small children and maintaining a career as concert pianist and teacher occupied her time fully.

The Piano Trio in G Minor, written in 1846 when Clara was 27, is one of the handful of works that followed her marriage. In that same year the Schumanns made a concert tour of Russia during which Clara performed in Moscow and St. Petersburg; after their return Robert completed his Second Symphony. The Piano Trio is in four movements, and-as might be expected-the writing for piano is particularly idiomatic. The writing for strings shows the dominance of the violin typical of composers in this era: the violin states themes first, and the cello then repeats or embellishes those ideas. The impulse in this music is lyric rather than dramatic. The Allegro moderato opens with a long flowing melody exchanged by violin and piano, and this is followed by a chordal second subject; a vigorous development leads to a turbulent coda and a firm close in G minor. The second movement is marked Scherzo, but Clara stipulates that it must be played at a Tempo di Menuetto, so the pulse is not particularly fast. This music, though, is of particular interest because the opening theme is full of rhythmic "snap" (a dotted rhythm with the short note coming first). The trio section is extended, and the movement concludes with a brief recall of the opening material. The ternary-form Andante moves to G major. The piano's quiet main theme seems to set the tone, but the middle section-marked più animato-leaps ahead on dotted rhythms and some powerful writing for strings. The concluding section gives the movement's opening idea to the strings, which play their long duet over murmuring piano accompaniment. The last movement is marked Allegretto (rather than the expected fast finale), but its falling main idea-full of chromatic tension-is full of possibilities, and Clara exploits them. Along the way there is a brief fugato on the opening idea, and the coda rushes the Piano Trio to its close on a ringing G from all three performers.