For more than forty years Allain Gaussin fascinated by astrophysics has found a major source of inspiration in observing the cosmos as attest a number of works going from Vent solaire (1974) to Philae (2015) by way of L’Harmonie des sphères (2006). Ten years later the 'Messiaen du Pays de la Meije' Festival hosted the first performance of the piano trio Les Céphéides. The musical journey enables the listener to enter a space 'just as impalpable and fragile' as that in which moves each Cepheid variable – this star whose brightness varies over regular periods according to two elements: the diameter of the heavenly body and thetemperature reading of its surface. How does one translate such a change in music? The bow's sautillé gettato on the violin and cello gives the score's opening pages this granular glittering that leads us 'towards the centre of the Cepheid variables'. From there a stream of colourful arabesques – the composer's 'ribbon figures' – gushes forth. After a weightless transition the cello unfurls its contemplative meditation which ends up in a suspended coda open onto the infinity of the starry vault. As musicologist Michèle Tosi accurately says so it is that the full richness 'of a teeming imaginary universe' unfolds.

Cheryl Frances-Hoad's The Forgiveness Machine for Piano Cello and Violin. 'The Forgiveness Machine was commissioned by the Phoenix Piano Trio as part of their Beyond Beethoven Project. My work is very closely modeled on the second movement of Beethoven’s Archduke Trio and comprises a set of loosely structured variations many of which are motivically very similar to Beethoven's. This work is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother Christina Hoad. I received this commission in the last months of her life and would often sit in the room listening to the Archduke on my headphones while she rested. Beethoven’s music to me atthat time had an almost transcendental quality to it temporarily permitting an escape from the reality and inevitability of my Nan’s illness. It was this quality of serenity beauty and dignity that I tried to emulate in my work. The title is taken from an art work by Karen Green: the Forgiveness Machine was made after the death of her husband David Foster Wallace and encourages members of the public to write down on a piece of paper what they want to forgive/be forgiven for before feeding it to the machine which sucks up the piece of paper and shreds it (the artwork is some seven foot long). Whilst in my case there is nothing to forgive it was the feeling of catharsis that many people reported after interaction with this artwork that struck a chord with me and had tremendous relevance to this work.' - Cheryl Frances-Hoad

In Beethoven?s Triple Concerto a piano trio provides the soloists a first in the history of music. Beethoven?s treatment of the trio is pioneering: he does not apply a typical piano trio setting in contrast to the orchestra but varies his treatment of the solo parts allowing each instrument to play alone with the orchestra (particularly the cello) using two solo instruments together in ever new combinations and finally bringing together all three instruments with the orchestra. Beethoven weaves a complex web the orchestral piano violin and cello voices interplaying and entwining and he produces a true masterpiece. Bärenreiter?s new Urtext edition ofBeethoven?s Triple Concerto is a completely fresh revision of this warm and beautiful showpiece. Errors abounded in all previous editions but with the assistance of three newly-discovered sources editor Jonathan Del Mar has cleaned up the text corrected wrong notes and rhythms and (for the first time since 1807) presented the work in a way that a musician of Beethoven?s day might have recognized with all necessary information for directing the piece included in the solo piano part. Piano reduction with separate parts for all three soloistsDraws on three new sourcesCorrection of many errors found in previous editions

A collection of 12 delightful Piano Trios for Violin Cello and Piano. These easy pieces are superb for concert performance and are great fun to play for beginning chamber ensembles.Score and Parts included.

Fantasy Pieces op. 88 for Piano Trio. The Fantasy Pieces op. 88 are Schumann?s first contribution to the genre of the piano trio and date from his very prolific ?chamber music year? 1842. However, Schumann needed an unusually long time to give the work its final form: the Fantasy Pieces were released only in the autumn of 1850 after several revisions. The brevity and the modest technical demands of the four charming character pieces make them an ideal entry into the world of Schumann?s chamber music also for non-professional musicians. The Fantasy Pieces, taken from the volume Schumann · Piano Trios HN 916, are now available from Henle for the first time also as a practical single edition.