Florestan Trio

In autumn 1851, a year after the performance of the Second Piano Trio, Schumann turned to this genre once again. Like much of his later work, the Third Piano trio is often undervalued. It was thought that the composer, plagued by serious nervous breakdowns, was no longer capable of splendid creations. In fact in his Third Piano Trio Schumann attained the ideal he had always pursued: the greatest possible independence for the three instruments and very tight thematic unity throughout the parts, achieved by deriving all the main themes from a single model. The 'Fantasiestücke opus 88' for piano trio were closely linked to the major chamber music works of 1842, but Schumann only published them in 1850, after thorough revision. He here departed from the substantial cyclical sonata form that typified the works from his 'chamber music year' and returned to the transient characteristic piece, so many of which he had previously written for piano. The 'Adagio und Allegro, opus 70', originally for horn and piano, is part of a series of miniatures for a variety of solo instruments plus piano that Schumann composed in Dresden in 1849. He had possibly been inspired by Uhlmann's new valve horn, which caused a furore in Germany as from 1835. He also anticipated versions for oboe, violin and cello.