Robert Schumann:Piano Trios. Vol. 1

It was in 1842, his 'year of chamber music' that Robert Schumann took on the combination of violin, cello and piano for the first time. He seems to have decided against releasing the resulting Fantasiestücke as a fully-fledged piano trio, however, but later returned to the work, revising it for publication. The model here is not the large-scale, quasi-symphonic trios of Beethoven or Schubert - instead Haydn's characteristic trio textures spring to mind, especially in the first two movements where the cello largely follows the piano's left-hand bass line.