Felix Mendelssohn: Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
Angela Sin Ying Chan, violin
Andres Sanchez, cello
Ying Li, piano

Performed on Monday, October 10, 2016
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

Mendelssohn’s second trio was composed in 1845 and dedicated to Louis Spohr, now a little-known figure but one of the most famous composer-conductors of the early 19th century. In typical four-movement form, the trio moves from the original key of C minor, via the relative major in the second movement, to the triumphant parallel major (C major) at the end of the final movement. The themes of the work have connections both backward and forward in German musical history, showing how even Romantic composers didn’t hesitate to recycle a good tune. The fourth movement quotes the old chorale tune “Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir” (also known in English as “Old Hundredth”), which was also used by Bach in his cantata of that name (BWV 130). In turn, Brahms would quote the opening of Mendelssohn’s fourth movement in his Piano Sonata No. 3 of 1853 and, decades later, he borrowed the theme of the first movement for his Third Piano Quartet (1875).

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