Schubert Trios/3 Presented by Liszt Academy

Although the birth of Schubert’s first trio experiment, a B-flat major sonata movement composed for piano, violin and cello with catalogue number 28, is often linked to events in his private life – the moment when the voice of the fifteen-year-old composer broke, which resulted in him losing his place in the Imperial Chapel Choir of Vienna, or the death of his mother – the truth is, in fact, much simpler: from childhood, Schubert had shown a fascination with all forms of music popular in the early 19th century and he had tested himself in all genres available to him (indeed, partly in those that were inaccessible to him as well, as indicated by his many opera experiments). His short career was accompanied by chamber music works, just as his symphonic works, which remained mostly unperformed in his lifetime. The programme of the third concert in the Complete Works series lets us see how, in the spring of 1816, Schubert’s first violin-piano sonatas displaying a distinctively unique tone grew out of his first, abandoned attempt. In the same year, two rondos were also completed in the Schubert workshop: of these, we hear the A major piece for solo violin and strings (D. 438).