Piano Trio (Debussy)

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The Piano Trio in G major  L. 3, was written by Claude Debussy in 1879.


The work is in four movements:

1. Andantino con moto allegro (G major)

2. Moderato con allegro (Scherzo and trio form; B minor - B major)

3. Andante espressivo (G major)

4. Finale - appassionato (G minor - G major)

Critical response[edit]

In 1984, the music critic Harold Schonberg wrote of the trio that "The Debussy piece is juvenilia. You can have a lot of fun putting it on the turntable and asking your learned friends who the composer is. Nothing in the music suggests Debussy. It is sweet, sentimental, and sugared; it verges on the salon."[1]

Reviewer Charlotte Gardner for the BBC wrote in 2012 that "Debussy's teenage Piano Trio doesn't often get to see the light of day, mostly because it reveals him very much still in feet-finding mode. Still, it's an enjoyable listen, and it’s interesting to compare its pizzicato second movement with that of the Quartet, and the Brodskys and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet are evidently having some fun. They're an effortless partnership, making make much of the work's smoochy, romantic leanings, the high beauty of many of its passages, and its light, clear textures."[2]

See also[edit]

Piano trio


  1. ^ Schoenberg, Harold C. (30 September 1984). "First Hearing for an early Debussy piano trio". New York Times. Retrieved 3 August 2013. 
  2. ^ Gardner, Charlotte (2012). "Claude Debussy String Quartet, Piano Trio, Deux Danses, Reverie Review". BBC. Retrieved 3 August 2013. 

External links[edit]