Under the direction of JOHAN HocK from Queen's College Chambers
Lecture Hall, Birmingham
THE GRINKE TRIO :
Frederick Grinke (violin). Florence Hooton (violoncello). Dorothy Manley
(pianoforte)
The more one thinks about the premature death of Schubert in the light of his last group of instrumental works, the more one realises what masterpieces the world has lost. Whereas in song Schubert was a pioneer of the romantic movement, even from the early part of his career when he wrote the ' Erlking', it was not until the last three or four years of his life that he began to apply a romantic technique, particularly as regards harmony, to classical instrumental forms ; for example, the C major Symphony, String Quartet in G, Op. 161, String Quintet in C, Op. 163, and the Piano Trios in B flat and E flat.
The Piano Trios were composed in 1827 for the Bocklet-Schuppanzigh-Linke Trio with which Schubert at that time was closely associated. Both works are extremely romantic in conception, and if we agree to Schumann's description of the E flat being ' passive, feminine, lyrical' and the B flat being 'active, masculine, dramatic ', they should be considered complementary.