Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

's Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 was composed and published in 1845

1845 in music

-Events:*March 13 - Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig*April 21 - Albert Lortzing's opera Undine debuts in Magdeburg.*June 4 - William Fry's opera Leonora debuts in Philadelphia....

. The work is scored for a standard piano trio

Piano trio

A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...

 consisting of violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 and piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

. Mendelssohn dedicated the work to the violinist Louis Spohr

Louis Spohr

Louis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...

, who played through the piece with the composer at least once.

Movements

The trio has four movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

:

1. Allegro energico e con fuoco
2. Andante espressivo
3. Scherzo
   Scherzo
   A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
   
   : Molto allegro quasi presto
4. Finale: Allegro appassionato

A typical performance lasts just under 30 minutes.

A notable feature of the finale of this work is its quotation of the melody of a chorale taken from the sixteenth-century Genevan psalter 'Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit'. The opening theme of the finale was adopted by Brahms for the Scherzo of his third piano sonata, Op. 5

Piano Sonata No. 3 (Brahms)

The Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 of Johannes Brahms was written in 1853 and published the following year. The sonata is unusually large, consisting of five movements, as opposed to the traditional four. When he wrote this piano sonata, the genre was seen by many to be past its heyday....

.