Trio Fantasy

What mood does the beginning of the piece convey to you? A melancholy, tender, or rather inquiring atmosphere? Over the pulsating carpet of sound in the piano, the violin and violoncello rather hesitatingly speak in alternation, and yet intertwined, as if they desired to return to a time long past. During the course of the work, the tone becomes quite vehement and explores, in a way, the borders of romantic sensuality. The nostalgic gesture however never disappears.

When Krenek wrote this Trio Fantasy, he found himself in a phase of creative transition in terms of style: between the snappy sound of the opera Jonny spielt auf (“Jonny plays on”) and the first vague attempts at twelve-tone music, he lived out in this one-movement work his romantic, Franz Schubert-inspired side.
Krenek composed the piece for the famous musicians Artur Schnabel (piano), Carl Flesch (violin), and Gregor Piatigorsky (cello).