Trios avec piano

Description

Thirty years separate his Piano Trios 1 and 2, although the first is not an immature work - the composer was 28 years old, with two symphonies and concertos for violin behind him, and his virtuosity as a pianist shines through from the very beginning of the Allegro. His second trio, composed once he had achieved international fame and experienced the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of his beloved mother, seems more serious in tone and, one might argue, reflects this maturity. Although Saint-Saëns himself strongly warned against incorporating subjective emotions into music by saying, "Art is meant to create beauty and character; feeling comes only afterward, and art can very well do without it. In fact, it is much better when that is the case."