Sally Beamish's Haunted for Piano Trio.Based on the idea of film music Haunted House creates a creepy sinister atmosphere. - Sally BeamishCommissioned with admiration by Andrew Keener

When Smetana composed his Piano trio in the autumn of 1855 it was an act of catharsis to recover from the death of his four-year-old daughter Friederike. This highly emotional work was also his first large-scale piece of chambermusic. Its first public performance in December 1855 was regrettably not a great success and so Smetana embarked on a protracted process of reworking it. By the late 1850s it had reached its current form. Smetana always liked toperform it but only found a publisher for it in 1880 when one of his pupils invited the Hamburg publisher Hugo Pohle to a performance at short notice. Smetana specialist Milan Posp Å¡il has based this Henle Urtext edition on thefirst edition by Pohle but has also drawn upon the earlier sources. This has enabled him to iron out numerous inconsistencies found in the first edition.

Full score for Violin Cello and Piano of Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No.1 In D minor Op.49 and Piano Trio No.2 in C minor Op.66. Upon hearing the first trio Robert Schumann declared Mendelssohn is the Mozart of the nineteenth century! Written in the composer's famously flowing Romantic style these two works are staples of the repertoire and anchors of many chamber music series. Both appear here for the first time in a single and affordable study edition. Mendelssohn drew upon a variety of influences in his musical style - chiefly Bach Mozart and Beethoven. Like the other German composers of his generation Mendelssohn created works that mirror the era'stension between Classicism and Romanticism. These trios are universally regarded as among his finest works with marked contrasts ranging from slow movements to lively scherzos in the manner of his Songs Without Words.

Piano Trio in B-flat major Op.133 for Piano Violin and Cello. One year after the completion of the 'Quartett-Konzert' Op.131 Louis Spohr finished his fourth Piano Trio Op.133 (1846). The first Piano Trio was greeted by the musical world with 'uncommon joy'. Whilst Spohr often wrote a final movement in virtuoso form in order to secure an effective ending the strength of the final movement in Op.133 lies in its pleasant lightness transparency and rhythmic pithiness. This Trio is earnestly recommended to professional artists and amateur musicians as a graceful chamber composition of the romantic period.

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

For Violin Cello and Piano. Composer's Notes 'Even though this work was intended to celebrate (as instructed by the commissioner Brolly Arts of Salt LakeCity) the wildlife and landscape of Utah (and especially its birdlife notably the sora which has a noticeable influence on the melodic writing at times) the title refers ironically in this 'natural' context to the re-seeing’of (mainly industrial) reality in early Soviet photography. Aleksandr Rodchenko (1881-1956) drew attention to the new type of photographer as someone who photographs 'facts' and who is able through photography to fight against'looking like art' with high quality examples and to do this you have to experiment going as far as the ‘easelisation’ of the photographic art.The work was written for and first performed by the Ahn Trio in November2004 in Salt Lake City and is dedicated to the memory of John Peel the British radio disc jockey who died during the final stages of its composition.' - Michael Nyman