Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 17

Composer: SCHUMANN, Clara Wieck
  • Clara Schumann composed this four-movement trio for piano, violin, and cello in 1846.1 It was published the following year.2
    • 1846 was a challenging year for Clara Schumann. She and her family had recently moved to a Dresden, where Robert intended to devote his time to composition, but was hampered by a long period of ill health. The Schumanns had a difficult time earning enough to support their large family, and Clara concertized and taught extensively to help provide for the family.3
    • While Clara Schumann was working actively on this piano trio, she and her family undertook a trip to the resort island of Norderney, where it was hoped that a vacation would improve Robert’s depression. Family records indicate that Clara had a health episode there – likely a miscarriage. Nevertheless, she gave a concert the day after the event.4
  • Listen for: a fughetta in the work’s final movement. The year before she wrote this Trio, Clara Schumann published a set of preludes and fugues for piano. Critics responded by noting that it seemed unusual for a “feminine mind” and a “woman artist” to write counterpoint. Nevertheless, in this work she did so again.5

Sources

  1. “Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (Schumann, Clara),” IMSLP, accessed June 17, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_in_G_minor%2C_Op.17_(Schumann%2C_Clara).
  2. Nancy B. Reich and Natasha Loges, “Schumann [née Wieck], Clara,” Grove Music Online (March 29, 2021), accessed June 17, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-90000380188.
  3. Nancy B. Reich, Clara Schumann: The Artist and The Woman (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988), 124-127.
  4. Ibid., 126, 245.
  5. Reich and Natasha Loges, “Schumann [née Wieck], Clara,” Grove Music Online

Cut IDs

13377 23135