Dvořák Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor - Beaux Arts Trio (1969)
Whether you know it or not, you’ve almost certainly heard the piece Dvořák is most famous for–Symphony No 9, the “New World” symphony. It’s an essential part of the canon of western music because of its memorable melodies and its ornate but well-signposted structure that makes it an excellent introduction to concert music.
While Symphony no. 9 used thematic material from American spirituals and folk song (because he wrote it while he was working and living in New York), most of Dvořák’s catalog uses folk melodies from his native Bohemia, now part of Czechia.
While lots of composers before an after him like to talk about how much they love the common folks’ music while using it mostly as a gloss for their own nationalist sensibilities, there was no doubt that Dvořák was sincere in it. He conscientiously collected songs and snippets everywhere he went, and had a real love of the music of his youth. He worked it into many of his pieces, rendering those simple melodies in the high class language of the concert hall.
This trio was composed and premiered in 1891, shortly before he’d leave for that career-altering sojourn in the US. It’s a less formally structured piece than a lot of his music. It’s sometimes called the “dumky” trio, a term for a brooding lament that still has light and cheerful sections inside it, to mirror the life and struggles of various Slavic peoples.
In practice, it gave Dvořák an excuse to break free from typical structures and create a freewheeling piece that moves through these serious / frivolous cycles in interesting ways that you don’t expect.
