Score and Parts.Commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre. First performance 19 May 1998 Merkin Concert Hall New York City.Quoting Weir: 'In my previous work I have often enjoyed inventing titles whichattempt to encapsulate the particular world of each composition but this fifteen minutes piece for violin cello and piano is simply entitled Piano Trio . What is the reason for this unusually abstract description? I thinkperhaps that in this piece the many external impressions which habitually make up my musical world have become too numerous and too personal to be pinned down in the space of few words that a composition title allows.The firstmovement began in my mind with impressions of Venice as relayed in Schubert's song Gondelfahrer; the crisp midnight air the dark choppy water the bells tolling the gondolier alone in emotional turmoil. Schubert's world is aplace where I can find constant inspiration and strength.The second movement recalls a time when I was called from a phone box in Africa. At one moment I was alone in my room the next (or so it seemed in my imagination)surrounded by light heat and sudden energy and activity. The movement is not however an evocation of African music; it takes the form of a scherzo and trio which collide with each other at the movement's conclusion.Thethird movement formed in my mind whilst I was reading some Gaelic poetry from the Hebridean island of Lewis on Scotland 's far flung Atlantic fringe. I was thinking of the bleached white beaches in that part of the world whereevery object lying on the sand - a washed-up bottle or a bird's skeleton - is a major event in a deserted landscape. The same might be said of this short set of musical variations where melodic fragments are laid out with plentyof space around them clear and plain for everyone to hear.

Piano Trio no. 2 in c minor op. 66. After the great success of his first Piano Trio in d minor op. 49, some five years passed before Mendelssohn set to work on a new composition for this formation. But then the c-minor Trio came into being in a relatively short period in March/April 1845 and was published around a year later. Much more sombre in character than the sibling work, this second trio is also considered much more difficult in terms of technique (above all in the piano part). Thus, it has always stood somewhat in the shadow of the earlier trio. However, chamber music aficionados generally regard it as the more mature and challenging work in terms of compositional technique. The trio, taken from the volume Mendelssohn · Piano Trios HN 957, is now available from Henle for the first time also as a practical single edition.

Geoffrey Poole's Look Behind You! for Piano Trio.The title signals a piece that is full of surprises exploiting the rapid response factor of lively young performers and responding to the brilliance of Turkish wedding music. It was composed shortly before its premier on 15 March 2002 at the Victoria Rooms Bristol (as part of the Schubert Ensemble's residency at Bristol University) and is dedicated to the composer's predecessor and colleague Adrian Beaumont. - Geoffrey Poole