Piano trio

The term can also refer to a group of musicians who regularly play this repertoire together; for a number of well-known piano trios, see below.

Mozart, in five late works, is generally credited with transforming the accompanied keyboard sonata, in which the essentially optional cello doubles the bass of the keyboard left hand, into the balanced trio which has since been a central form of chamber music.

In the Classical era, home music-making made the piano trio a very popular genre for arrangements of other works.

[2] Mozart's five late (K. 496 and later) trios are generally felt to mark the assured arrival of the form, attentive to balanced voices and three-part dialogue.

Certainly, by the mid-nineteenth century, all three instruments had been modified to have a very powerful sound,[citation needed] and each can hold its own in a modern ensemble.

The earlier trios are now frequently performed and recorded using authentic instruments, of the kind for which they were originally written.