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Ethea Trio Performs Haydn & Ravel


Details

Ayoun Alexandra Kim full profile / Piano Trio / 3 musicians

Other players: Shintaro Taneda, Jon Lee


Full program notes

This program traces how composers from different eras engage with musical language, structure, and expression—each in their own voice, each resonating across time.
Joseph Haydn’s Piano Trio in E-flat major, Hob. XV:30 (1796) was written late in his life, during a period when the piano trio was gaining popularity as a chamber form. This work reflects Haydn’s refined style: clear textures, balanced form, and subtle wit.
Arvo Pärt’s Mozart-Adagio (1992) takes a fragment from Mozart’s unfinished Piano Sonata in F major, K. 580a, and reimagines it through Pärt’s distinct minimalist aesthetic. The result is spare, meditative, and reverent—a contemplative lens on a Classical voice.
Maurice Ravel composed his Piano Trio in A minor, M. 67 in 1914, just before volunteering for military service in World War I. The work blends precision with imagination: traditional forms like the passacaille and pantoum are transformed through Ravel’s rhythmic vitality and harmonic color.
Each work is rooted in its own time, yet all three reflect a continuity of craft, form, and expression—echoes not of imitation, but of shared musical inquiry.


Historical context

The piano trio—violin, cello, and piano—emerged as a distinct genre in the late 18th century. Early examples by composers such as Joseph Haydn helped define the form, which became a central medium for chamber music.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the piano trio evolved into a more expressive and often virtuosic format, as seen in works by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and Ravel. Composers used the ensemble to explore structural complexity and emotional range, often combining classical forms with new harmonic languages.
In the late 20th century, composers like Arvo Pärt turned to historical material not as nostalgia, but as a way of recontextualizing the past. Pärt’s use of minimalism and sacred aesthetics created space for reflection, often referencing earlier music without replicating it.
This lineage continues today, not just through repertoire, but through the ensemble itself—three distinct voices brought into dialogue.


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