Mozart - Trio No. 5 in C major, K. 548

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Trio No. 4 in C major, K. 548
Angela Sin Ying Chan, violin
Andres Sanchez, cello
Ying Li, piano

Performed on Friday, March 30, 2017
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

The composition of this piano trio coincides with the creation of Mozart’s masterful Symphony No. 40 in G minor. In fact, this trio—along with its sibling, the fourth trio (K. 542)—may have been intended to be performed alongside the new symphonic work. It’s unclear whether these pieces were premiered precisely as Mozart intended; though his compositional sophistication was reaching its peak, his financial fortunes were following the opposite trajectory. Not only was aristocratic support for the arts in decline (due in part to the fact that Austria was engaged in a war with the Ottoman Empire), Mozart was diverting what meager money he was able to make toward medical care for his wife, Constanze.

Despite Mozart’s troubles at the time, the C major trio is an ebullient work. Its overall tone is simple and uncomplicated: elegant and flamboyant in the first movement, earnest and tender in the second, and charming and playful in the third. It is unapologetically joyous music.
—Joshua Halpern

Learn more about this work:

• Intro: MOZART — Trio No. 5 in C major...

0:00 Allegro
7:50 Andante cantabile
16:25 Allegro