# String Trios



## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

In my experience, there isn’t really an abundance of string trios. Yet I enjoy the 3 part textures a lot. Violin, viola and cello also have a sound of their own.

Could you recommend excellent and heavy-weight string trios?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Beethoven / Mozart / Boccherini /Taneyev / Hindemith.
The first tree are the most well-known loved .


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Well this is a shameless plug but what the hell. I wrote one a few years ago that utilises multiple stop techniques and was inspired by listening to Bach's violin partitas. It's on this page in video score...'Partita Concordia'.

https://mikehewer.com/page-3/


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Reger has 2 of them I think and if I remember correctly they are not quite as dense as some of his other music. Schoenberg's is probably the most famous from the 20th century.
Lighter works worth trying are by Dohnanyi, Weiner and Kodaly's short Intermezzo often used as filler. There are also (contemporary) arrangements of uncertain authorship of three Haydn sonate (40-42) I find very pleasing.

You probably encountered already the Goldberg variations arrangements.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Mozart's Divertimento K563 is a mature, serious work on a grand scale that defies its "entertainment" title.
Beethoven's contributions to the genre are great as well, above all the wonderful Serenade op.8


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Waehnen said:


> In my experience, there isn't really an abundance of string trios. Yet I enjoy the 3 part textures a lot. Violin, viola and cello also have a sound of their own.
> 
> Could you recommend excellent and heavy-weight string trios?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)




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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Two of my favorites are Roussel's and Schönberg's. If you care to sample something by the new kids on the block, try Freya Waley-Cohen's _Conjure_ and Andrew Norman's kaleidoscopic and decidedly unchurchy _The Companion Guide to Rome_.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Reger`s are probably the heaviest ones out there but my favourites are Schönberg and Ferneyhough. Anyway, here are some other favourites of mine that didn`t get any mentions up to this point:


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Wolfgang von Schweinitz: KLANG auf Schön Berg La Monte Young - Goeyvaerts String Trio








https://louthcontemporarymusicsociety.bandcamp.com/track/klang

This is a rich and imaginative 43-minute long string trio in just intonation. Goeyvaerts String Trio also released some good string trio albums. (Gubaidulina, Górecki, Kancheli, etc.)


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

With Beethoven Trios I have been familiar with before. I started my expansion with the Mozart Divertimento recommended above. When it comes to instrumentation and making the music sound and flow good, Mozart is hard for anyone to surpass. I cannot help but admire this ”prototype” of a string trio. Every note counts, the transparency of the texture brings intensity to everything. You cannot ”hide behind the 2nd violin” here.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I've always enjoyed Dohnanyi's Serenade in C major but apart from that and Beethoven's and Mozart's, my trio listening has been negligible, tbh.


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

I don't listen to string trios that often, not even to those by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, & Schoenberg, but I like string trios enormously, & listen to a lot of string trio playing via works that were composed for various instrumental configurations in addition to the string trio.

This is something that appears to have begun during the French Impressionist era, when composers started to write for string trios within various multi-instrumental ensembles, & especially Harp Quintets.

For example, I listen frequently to the following French works,

I. Harp Quintets, for Flute, Harp, and String Trio (& I've included links to various excellent performances for each work listed below):

--Albert Roussel, Sérénade for Flute, Harp, and String Trio, Op.30: 









--Joseph-Guy Ropartz, Prelude, Marine et Chansons for Flute, Harp, & String Trio:













--Marcel Tournier, Suite, Op. 34, for Flute, Harp, & String Trio, op. 34:









--Florent Schmitt, Suite En Rocaille, Op. 84, for Flute, Harp, & String Trio:





--Charles Koechlin,
Quintet No. 1, "Primavera", Op. 156, for Flute, Harp, & String Trio,: 








Quintet No. 2, "Primavera", Op. 223: 




--Jean Cras, Quintet for Flute, Harp, & String Trio:





II. & a variation on the idea,

--Germaine Tailleferre: Trois Petits Danses dans le style "Louis XV" for oboe, String Trio, and harpsichord.

III. Which inspired British composers to do the same, such as Arnold Bax, for instance,

--Arnold Bax: Harp Quintet: 




IV. Interestingly, the trend has been continued into recent times, with contemporary composers writing works for voices & string trio, such as in the following three examples,

--John Tavener, "Ikon of Light", for Double Choir & String Trio:




https://www.gimell.com/cdgim005
https://music.apple.com/us/album/john-tavener-ikon-of-light-funeral-ikos-the-lamb/797540241

--Arvo Part, Stabat Mater, performed by the Goeyvaerts String Trio & three voices:





--Ivan Moody, Simeron, performed by the Goeyvaerts String Trio, & three voices:





V. Here are four more lesser known, but striking French compositions that were written exclusively for a string trio,

1. Gabriel Pierne:
--Trois pièces en trio for String Trio: https://www.earsense.org/chamber-music/Gabriel-Pierne-Trois-pieces-en-trio-for-String-Trio/

2. Joseph-Guy Ropartz: 
--String Trio: 




3. Albert Roussel (which Rick has already mentioned):
--String Trio op. 58: 




4. Jean Cras:
--String Trio: 




Plus, it's written on the score of Koechlin's Trio for Flute, Clarinet, and bassoon, Op. 92, that it can be alternatively performed by a string trio, as well; however, I've never heard it played that way.

VI. Finally, since Franz Schubert's three String Trios haven't been mentioned so far, here's a link to the second version of his String Trio in B-flat major, D.581, from 1817:


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Gottfried Michael Koenig died on the 30th December 2021. He wrote a fabulous trio called 60 Blätter fur Streichtrio.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I forgot what may well be the biggest and most expressive of all string trios, Rihm's Musik fuer drei streicher


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## Musicaterina (Apr 5, 2020)

Franz Schubert: String Trio D 471

played by: Veronika Eberle, Violin / Amihai Grosz, Viola / Sol Gabetta, Cello






I like this performance very much.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Can anyone help me find a recording of the Arditti Quartet members playing the Schoenberg trio? It was released but all the copies I can see are very expensive. There’s a streaming rip on Internet Archive, but the sound is not the best.


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