The Piano Trio: Its History, Technique, and Repertoire (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Rating:
Summary: An interesting guide, but not comprehensive
Review: Smallman traces the history of the piano trio, that is, chamber music written for the pianoforte and two other instruments, from its origins in the eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. He points out how the first two great composers whose trios remain in the repertory, Haydn and Mozart, followed essentially different paths with regard to the genre, the former developing the old-fashioned concept of the accompanied keyboard sonata to its ultimate peak in his superb late trios, the latter aiming for a new type of collaborative style between three independent instruments. The main musical problem, as Smallman implies but does not explicity state in a useful chapter on basic trio-writing technique, is that the piano quickly evolved into such a massive and tonally powerful instrument that composers since Beethoven have been hard-pressed to maintain equality between it and two other, much weaker instruments.

As can be seen from the above description, Smallman aims at a discussion of broad themes and topics as much as a chronological survey. While his technique of grouping compositions together by topic, within broadly chronological chapters, is usually successful, it results in some odd omissions: surely Vincent d'Indy's monumental Trio in B-flat for Piano, Clarinet and Cello is worth some detailed description, particularly since its composer is mentioned several times in other contexts. The last chapters on the twentieth century seem sketchy and unduly if understandably weighted toward composers from the United Kingdom. Still, any successive authors on this topic will be hard put to surpass the skill with which Smallman has surveyed and ordered this genre of classical music.