Classical Event Details

Piano Trios: Beethoven, Smetana, and Dvořák

Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago and nearby North Shore venues | Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM CDT

When

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM CDT

Where

Harris Theater for Music and Dance
Chicago, Chicago metro

Address

205 East Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60601

Performance Run Time: Approximately 1 hours and 50 minutes, including intermission. The piano trio has long offered composers a direct and personal means of expression, and this program brings together three works that reveal the form from different perspectives. Beethoven ’s Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 1, No. 1, shows a young composer already expanding the scope of the piano trio, giving each instrument a distinct role and shaping music that moves beyond convention. Czech composer Bedřich Smetana wrote his G-minor Piano Trio during a period of profound personal loss, and its shifting moods give the work a deeply human intensity. Fellow Czech composer Antonín Dvořák ’s “Dumky” Trio closes the program. The work stands apart in the chamber music repertoire as both his farewell to his homeland before departing for America and a composition of entirely unique design. The title refers to the dumka, a Slavic folk form marked by sudden contrasts between melancholy reflection and exuberant energy. Dvořák unfolds the work as a sequence of these contrasting episodes, giving the music a sense of freedom and immediacy that brings the program to a compelling close. Program: Beethoven | Trio in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 1, No. 1 (1793) Smetana | Trio in G minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 15 (1855, rev. 1857) Dvořák | Trio in E minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 90, “Dumky” (1890–91) Performing Artists: Wu Han, piano Chad Hoopes, violin David Finckel, cello