Ignaz Moscheles - Piano Trio, Op. 84 (1830)

Ignaz Moscheles (23 May 1794 – 10 March 1870) was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire.

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Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 84 (1830)

1. Allegro con spirito (0:00)
2. Adagio (14:40)
3. Scherzo alla Scozzese (Presto leggiero e ben staccato (those last words may apply to the notes and not to the tempo)) (19:58)
4. Allegretto grazioso (24:57)

Göbel Trio, Berlin

Details by Edition Silvertrust:

Ignaz Moscheles' Piano Trio in c minor, Op.84 was composed in 1830. Robert Schumann, reviewing it for the prestigious Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, hailed it as an outstanding work. And not without good reason. Superb and lovely melodies for all 3 voices are found in the opening Allegro con spirito, a huge movement nearly as long as the rest of the trio. There is, as one might expect from a pianist of Moscheles stature, some very fine writing for piano, which must have been characteristic of his technique, but there is also very fine writing for the strings as well. The piano, in contrast to the efforts of so many other piano virtuosi, does not dominate. The lovely Adagio which follows again keeps the parts in balance and while the piano does receive the occasional florid run, it is more in the tradition of Beethoven rather than Mendelssohn. Most original of the four movements is the short but unusual Scherzo alla Scozzese: Presto, leggiero e ben staccato. Scozzeses one finds in Beethoven and elsewhere, but they are invariably slow, but here we have a real Scottish scherzo! It’s very clever and quite effective. In the appealing finale, Allegretto grazioso, the piano “escapes” once or twice but no more than in Mendelssohn. Here and there we hear echoes of his friend Beethoven. All in all, one can see why Schumann, also Moscheles' friend, was enthusiastic—it was because of the music and not the man.