It was not until 1880, twenty-seven years after composing his First Piano Trio in B major (op.8), that Brahms returned to this musical genre. The masterful execution of his initial youthful opus did not however encourage Brahms to continue in this direction. Was he afraid of the illustrious models created by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, in particular? Or of fitting into the mould of a universe well-known and liked by all, but in fact too popular - especially amongst amateur musicians? One knows that with his penchant for a challenge and tendency to show-off, Brahms enjoyed distinguishing himself and astonishing his audience.

Graf Mourja, Françoise Groben and Peter Laul met at the Festival Juventus that brings together young European soloists in Cambrai each July. Françoise Groben was one of the festival’s first award winners in 1991, along with Aleksandar Madzar, Alexandre Tharaud, Xavier Phillips and Ronald Spaendonck; Graf Mourja is a 1994 award winner and has become the festival’s foremost violinist, and Peter Laul, a 2000 award winner, one of the festival’s most determinant figures.

It was in 2002 that these three strong musical personalities first came together, to perform Rachmaninov. They hit it off from the start of the very first rehearsal – the mutual stimulation and understanding of great music-making.

Françoise Groben left us on 28 May 2011. This complete trios for piano and strings recording by J. Brahms has been published to pay tribute to her.