The 'dumka? is a Slavic folk song or dance of a melancholy character. Dvorák's magnum opus in the piano trio genre takes its name from its 'dumka? movements, which he composed in Prague in 1890-91. After long hesitation Dvorák also prepared a piano reduction while he was in the United States in the summer of 1893. The previous year he had played the work on a forty-concert farewell tour of Bohemia with Ferdinand Lachner and Hans Wihan. / Violon, Violoncelle Et Piano

Dvo?ák worked longer and more intensively on this Trio than on just about any other chamber music work. After his first successes with pieces inspired by Czech folk music, namely the popular Slavonic Dances (HN 757 and 918), he now wanted to prove himself as a composer of the highest order. This is why in the following summer, he thoroughly reworked the Trio that he had written within eight weeks in spring 1883 before giving it to his publisher. Although Brahms' music was the undeniable model for the new work, it did not hinder the unfolding of a very personal tone that blends expressiveness and passion. As with the 'Dumky? Trio op. 90 (HN 799), Andreas Groethuysen is once again responsible for the fingerings of the piano part. / Piano