The composer
Felix Mendelssohn was, at 31, already something of an old hand when his First Piano Trio saw the light of day in April 1840. As well as his famous Octet, the masterpieces that had been effortlessly rattled off back in his teens included the Overture, and the grand tour of Europe that inspired the likes of the Overture and ‘Scottish’ and ‘Italian’ symphonies was already a decade in the past. Since 1835, he had been a vibrant music director of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, where he would continue to enjoy enormous popularity until his death in
