Piano Trio No. 4 "Testament" (2019)
(for violin, cello and piano)

Beethoven's ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’ contains only a small number of testamentary bequests. By far the greater part of this document is taken up by a desperate lament about his fateful hearing disorder and the associated isolation and marginalisation in terms of social interaction on the one hand and the misinterpretation of his (allegedly misanthropic) character traits by his fellow human beings on the other.

Nevertheless, one can always discover small, hidden hints of a hopeful potential for strength that wrests its own raison d'être from fate. My 4th Piano Trio draws on the tension between these opposing poles and is therefore – in my view – a work about failure and the courage to counter this failure again and again with a courageous new beginning.

The piece is lovingly dedicated in memory of my former teacher and fatherly friend Heinz Werbeck, one of the greatest and most expressive symphonists of our time.

Tobias PM Schneid