Klavier (Trio for Violin-Cello-Piano)

Piano Trio 

The work was written in 1989 in Thessaloniki and is dedicated to the Athens Trio. It is a composition that refers to the personal experiences of the composer. The composition is divided into five sec¬tions that follow each other without interruption: 

Introduction: based on the emotionally disturbed motif that the violin presents at the beginning of the work and continues with the entry of the cello and later the piano. 

Passacaglia: although the work is not a twelve-tone composition, a twelve-tone sequence is heard from the piano which is freely repeated 14 times, as a persistent thought in which the mind is trapped. The violin and cello have strongly free parts that distract the listener so that the line of the persistent bass (passacaglia) always remains “hidden” in the second sound level. This disturbed part reaches a climax, as an expression of emotional despair.

Intermezzo: with a short bridge that relieves us of the previous turbulent section, we are led to the center of the whole work where the piano often plays the c minor chord. A symbol of hope and anticipation of redemption.

Development: with a very short musical passage (violin sul ponticello and cello con sordino and then with sharp and strong chords of the c minor on the piano), we are led to the development part (Allegro). Previous ideas are developed and often mutate in a melodic and rhythmic way.

Repeated exposure - Coda: without interruption follows the last part of the work (Meno mosso). It is also a brief reminder of the main musical ideas of the composition. It begins with the reappearance of the work’s motif of the beginning which, this time, is heard simultaneously with the twelve-cord series. 

After - for the last time - the slow sound of the c minor chord, the coda follows. At very low volume and with slow notes the work closes gently and the music goes off with a cluster stroke in the very low area of the piano.

The live recording heard on the album is from a concert of the Athens Trio in the Ceremony Hall of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens on March 28, 2005.