Joseph Haydn, Piano Trio in E Major Hob. XV:28
Robert Schumann, Piano Trio in D Minor Op. 63
Jörg Widmann, Passacaglia, for Piano Trio (World Premiere Recording)

Maintain an upright posture, now carefully step with one foot forward, to prepare a gallant step. Follow it with another. Not too fast! Now spread your feet apart: That is how they once “did” the passacaglia, a walking dance particularly en vogue during the 1600‘s. The typical passacaglia attitude – pressing forward, with elegance – maintained itself until today. “Passacaglia” is the musical, gestural and intellectual thread that the Oberon Trio has chosen to weave all through its CD début, a wide-ranging programme with repertoire from Haydn, to Schumann, to Widmann. ….In his London trios Haydn abandoned the territory of plain, simple house music once and for all…… And he spreads out a harmonic lushness that points far into the Romantic future. Then suddenly, in the midst of it all, there’s that glimpse into the past. The trio’s central movement holds religious significance for me. Haydn, with his Baroque stance, is walking down the Via Dolorosa.” A truly peculiar way for Haydn to treat the passacaglia model, as the Oberon Trio finds…….” Instructing that the third movement should be played “with heartfelt feeling”, the composer provokes a standstill. “Schumann does everything in order to conceal that this is actually a passacaglia….. but suddenly you notice: the same element recurs, yet each time somewhat distorted, donning different masks and changing meanings.” (Oberon Trio)….. “Passacaglia, understood as stepping forward”: that is how composer Jörg Widmann describes his piece in the foreword. He also calls it “my most peaceful work. A series of dance steps that also include stopping in one’s tracks, not being able to proceed, groping in the dark, stumbling, and at other times obeying the compulsion to move further”.