Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) was the only female composer within the Parisian composers’ group Les Six, which formed around Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie and was active in the vibrant artistic milieu of Paris. She developed her own distinctive style characterised by clarity, elegance and a typically French lightness, with influences from neoclassicism, jazz and other musical currents. Her Piano Trio has a remarkable history: originally composed in 1916–17, it long remained unpublished and received little attention, leading her to focus on other works. Not until 1978 did Tailleferre return to the trio, rewriting sections and adding new material to complete it. This long interruption was partly due to personal and historical circumstances, including the Second World War, relocations and professional obligations. Despite a gap of more than sixty years, the work sounds remarkably homogeneous, with lyrical, Ravel-inflected sound colours, vibrant rhythms and playful contrasts.

Joaquín Turina Pérez (1882–1949) was an important representative of Spanish nationalism in classical music. He combined elements of Andalusian folk music with influences from French Impressionism, building a bridge between the Spanish tradition and the European musical currents of the early twentieth century. His work is characterised by colourful harmonies, rhythmic vitality and a strong lyrical expression. Círculo (1936) is a fantasy depicting the course of a day, from Amanecer (dawn) through Mediodía (midday) to Crepúsculo (dusk). Stylistically it is close to Turina’s Impressionist influences from his Parisian period, but the music is more compact and formal than his earlier, more opulent style. Turina employs a cyclical structure, with the end of the work referring back to the beginning, musically completing the idea of a ‘circle’.

Mariano Perelló (1886–1960) was a Catalan violinist, teacher and chamber musician, best known as a member of the Trio Barcelona (founded in 1911). He built an important career as a performer and teacher in Barcelona in the early twentieth century. As a composer he wrote, among other works, the Tres Impresiones, a suite of three character pieces in which Spanish dance rhythms and lyrical melodies come together, with influences from Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla.

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) composed his Piano Trio in 1914, shortly before and during the outbreak of the First World War. He worked on it in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the French Basque Country, where his musical ideas were strongly influenced by his Basque heritage and rhythms such as the zortziko. The work was completed in a few intense weeks, after Ravel had resolved to serve in the military.
The trio consists of four movements: a restrained first movement (Modéré), a lively scherzo (Pantoum), a passacaglia-like slow movement (Passacaille) and a brilliant, energetic finale. Ravel combines classical forms with colourful, orchestral sonorities, creating a rich, layered texture in which piano and strings are in constant dialogue.

The work was first performed in Paris in 1915 and is considered one of Ravel’s most important chamber music works. It demonstrates his mastery of timbre, rhythm and form, while also reflecting the tension and emotional intensity of the era in which it was created.

Paul Juon (1872–1940) was a Russian-Swiss composer best known for his chamber music. His style combines Russian lyrical influences with the German Romantic tradition, earning Juon the nickname “the Russian Brahms”.

The Miniatures Op. 18 were originally written for piano, but later arranged by Juon himself for piano and strings (and sometimes clarinet). In these short, characterful movements he sketches a variety of moods: from dreamy melancholy in Rêverie to playful rhythms in Humoresque, and a restrained, melancholic atmosphere in Elegy. The final movement, Danse fantastique, concludes with lively, almost exuberant dance energy. Juon’s music is characterised by beautiful melodies, harmonic richness and an alternation between lyrical and playful moments, bridging the late Romantic era and early twentieth-century music.

Frank Martin (1890–1974) was a Swiss composer whose music resists classification within a single style. He combined influences from Johann Sebastian Bach and Arnold Schoenberg with folk music and modern experimentation.

When an Irish-American patron asked him to write a work based on Irish folk songs, Martin saw this as an ideal opportunity to unite two of his chief interests: music from other cultures and rhythm. In his Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (1925), he keeps the authentic Irish folk melodies intact but places them in a modern, rhythmically rich context, resulting in a complex and layered work. In this way, Martin combines a distinctly Irish character with an innovative musical language of the twentieth century.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was a Russian composer whose music is rooted in both the European Romantic tradition and Russian culture. In his work, this dual origin is clearly audible: a blend of Slavic melancholy, folk-inspired melodies and a rich, deeply expressive emotionality.

In his Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50, written in memory of his close friend Nikolai Rubinstein, these qualities come clearly to the fore. In particular, the cantabile lines – long, singing melodies – give the work an intensely lyrical character. Tchaikovsky’s talent for writing beautiful melodies is here at its finest: lyrical, intense and often imbued with wistfulness. Combined with a virtuosic and expressive piano part, this makes the trio a deeply moving, grand and emotionally charged work.

Tristan Keuris (1946–1996), a key figure in twentieth-century Dutch music, creates in his Piano Trio a transparent, almost painterly sound world. His music is harmonious and ‘organic’ in character; he himself spoke of working with “colours and atmospheres” rather than strict thematic development. Although his style stands within the tradition of modern orchestral music, he distanced himself from the avant-garde and considered himself a lone voice without a clear school.

Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838) was a German composer and pianist from Bonn. Through his father he came into contact with Beethoven at an early age, becoming his student, copyist and assistant in Vienna. At the same time, he grew into a successful pianist and composer. His piano trios clearly show Beethoven’s influence in dramatic writing and form, but are often more elegant and accessible in style. Despite his versatile output, his music remained in the shadow of Beethoven, with whom he had a close but complex relationship.

While writing Shadows and Bells (2009), the young Dutch composer Joey Roukens (b. 1982) was studying Romantic piano trios by Mendelssohn and Brahms, while from his studio in Amsterdam the bells of the Oude Kerk were audible. Those worlds – Romantic chamber music and urban soundscape – blended in his imagination into a work in which bell sounds, shadows from the past and energetic, playful passages alternate: a contemporary reflection on Romanticism.

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847) was Felix’s older sister and at least equally gifted, but a public career was discouraged by her family. Much of her music therefore remained unpublished. Her Piano Trio completed shortly before her death, reveals an independent, lyrical and intensely personal voice – a work that for a long time literally sounded ‘from the shadows’.

Note: If desired, the trios by Tristan Keuris and Ferdinand Ries can be replaced by the first piano trio of Felix Mendelssohn, for a programme that focuses on Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, with Roukens as a contemporary reflection on the Romantic tradition. The programme would then be as follows:

Fanny Mendelssohn Piano Trio Op. 11 in D minor (1847)
Joey Roukens Shadows and Bells (2009)
– Interval –
Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 Op. 49 in D minor

Lera & the Delta Piano Trio

Searching for new repertoire and wandering through the labyrinth of YouTube, Vera discovered the piano music of Lera Auerbach years ago and was immediately captivated by it. When we began exploring the piano trio repertoire, we discovered that Lera had also written two trios. We learned them, and they soon became our most frequently programmed pieces.

We were still students in Salzburg when we went on tour to the United States in 2015. We performed at the New York Chamber Music Festival and on the programme was Lera’s Piano Trio No. 1. We saw on Facebook that she would be in New York the day after our concert, so we plucked up the courage and sent her a message: “Dear Ms Auerbach, we know this is a bit bold to simply ask, but might we perhaps meet you, or play for you? We are flying back tomorrow anyway.” Within a few hours we received a reply: “Dear Vera, Monday is possible. 12.45.” So, a day later, laden with instruments and a large box of chocolates, we went to an apartment in New York. There we first met violinist Vadim Repin, who had just been working with Lera on her violin concerto. Then it was our turn and we played Piano Trio No. 1 for her. It was so special to work with a composer whose work meant so much to us and with whom we had by then spent so many hours. Her matter-of-factness, humour and practical approach were disarming. On the one hand she worked in great detail and was specific about what she wanted to achieve with a passage, a phrase, or even a single note. On the other hand she gave a great deal of freedom to find our own interpretation. Always under just one condition: it must be convincing.

In the years that followed we performed her work from the Netherlands to China, from Austria to Cuba, and we also got to know much of her solo and duo repertoire. We stayed in contact and could always turn to her with questions or online sessions to play works for her. In 2018 we released a CD with her First and Second Piano Trio and in 2023 a second CD appeared, entitled Milking Darkness, including her Third and Fourth Piano Trio. When we sent Lera a recording of our rehearsal we received a long e-mail back with suggestions: “Play this passage like a drunk trombonist”, or “This passage sounds too healthy, it needs to be much more sickening.” She ended the e-mail: “Terrify, seduce, pray, burn, obsess, ridicule, dance. Forget the notes – you already have them all. Now turn them into alchemy. It’s your music. Own it.”

Lera’s music appears on our music stand every season, and we find it a privilege each time to share it with our audiences!