Mendelssohn is considered a self-critical composer, who repeatedly reworked a number of his pieces until he deemed them worthy to be published. The path to his first Piano Trio was particularly rocky: only after several attempts was he able to complete it in the summer of 1839; it appeared in1840 after further revisions.

This perfectionism paid off, for Mendelssohn’s d minor Trio was immediately received with enthusiasm. Robert Schumann wrote: “It is the master trio of the present day, like t...