26 BRAHMS ∙ THE PIANO TRIOS The Trio no.1 op.8 is an early work, dating from 1853. For much of the time it was being composed, Brahms was staying with Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf. It’s full of quotations, most of which were intended for Clara, and was a work of unprecedented dimensions for a trio. And the composer went on to revise it thirty-five years later. Which version did you choose? Angèle: We chose the second version. In a sense, this is both the first and the last of Brahms’s trios, revised after the other two were composed. He didn’t revise the Scherzo, but in the Allegro finale he removed the quotation from the sixth Lied in Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) – ‘Accept these songs I sang to you, O beloved’ – and replaced it with a recurrence of the chorale theme from the Scherzo. This version is shorter, yet still unusually long for a piano trio, which gives you some idea of the work’s initial dimensions! Fanny: Brahms was rarely satisfied with himself. We can imagine him critically altering the initial score with a matured mind and life experience. Nevertheless, the second version still contains the spirit, the passion and the exuberance of his youth.
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