We know that Franz Schubert composed his two piano trios in the last Six months of his life, along with the three piano sonatas, his cello quintet, his Schwanengesang (Swan Song), as well as other smaller works. Much can be said about how the suffering that Schubert went through in his last weeks impacted his late compositions.
It was in the late summer of 1828, three months before his end on November 19, 1828, that the doctors told Schubert that he was beyond cure. It is hard to pinpoint the dates he began and completed the E-flat trio, because he often worked on simultaneous projects. But It is interesting that Schubert had radically changed elements of the piece from his working drafts to his final manuscript, including drastic structural changes in his slow movement, and a recasting to B-minor of the haunting repeated note 2nd theme in the opening movement.
The Beaux Arts Trio was in existence for many years, and I heard them perform in San Francisco from time to time. Their pianist, Menachem Pressler, is now about 95 years old.
Listen to how wonderful this music sounds in the caring hands of these three people. They play the second movement titled “Andante”:
