Trio Pathétique

Mikhail Glinka is known as the "Father of Russian Music". His opera "A Life for the Tsar", the first opera in Russian language, quickly achieved classic status after its great success at the St. Petersburg Theater. In contrast, Glinka wrote very little chamber music. In addition to a few works from his youth, he composed further chamber music during his studies in Italy from 1830 to 1833. During this time, Glinka studied in Naples and, inspired by Italian opera, went to Milan, where he attended opera performances at La Scala almost daily and eventually became friends with Vincenzo Bellini. Here he composed two divertissements on operatic themes as well as his “Trio Pathétique” for clarinet, bassoon (violoncello) and piano. Bellini's influence is particularly evident in the third movement of the trio in the clarinet's long melodic phrases. The classical four-movement trio appears compact and self-contained due to the attaca-like transition from the scherzo vivacissimo to the largo and the final movement "Allegro con spirito", which takes up the themes of the previous movements again. The trio was composed in 1832 and premiered a year later by woodwind players from La Scala in Milan and Michail Glinka at the piano. Today, it is one of his best-known chamber music works and is an outstanding example of Glinka's compositional ability to combine Western and Russian influences.