Piano Trio No. 1

• Date: 1963
• Composer: George Rochberg
• Period: Modern (1910-1949)

Review

George Rochberg established himself as one of the most talented of America's younger composers working within the twelve-tone system. This trio was to be his last fully serial piece. He was finding it increasingly difficult to put meaning into his new twelve-tone pieces. This piece dramatically throws attention onto each of the members of the trio in turn by giving them each a cadenza and giving two of them a duet. These are all separated by a tutti section for the entire trio. By clearly marking the sections of the composition by changing the players he displays the overall shape of the piece to the audience, helping them follow the work. Moreover, the bravura character of each cadenza is Romantic in expression. This keeps his basic compositional technique (deriving the melodic material from minute cells or groups of pitches chosen from the basic tone row and its derivations) from overwhelming the piece with an intellectual mood. The trio, overall, is elegant in sound. It shows that Rochberg was fully capable of writing fine music within the twelve-tone system before he became a leader in the international movement away from it. ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Robert Palmer, Roque Cordero, George Rochberg: Chamber Music	1995
Roehberg: Piano Trios	1998

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