His friend Robert Schumann called Felix Mendelssohn "the Mozart of the 19th century," not least because of the astounding number of works he produced in his short lifetime. They include volumes for piano and for organ, five symphonies, monumental choral pieces, overtures and incidental music, songs and part-songs and no fewer than two dozen chamber works. Throughout Europe, Mendelssohn was in demand as an organist, pianist, conductor, and composer. He spent his last decade as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. There he championed neglected works of the previous century (most notably his resurrection of Bach's St. Matthew Passion) as well as premiering his own compositions and those of his contemporaries as he tried to raise the standards of both orchestral performance and public taste.

Never an innovator, Mendelssohn strove to reconcile the classical heritage of the 18th century with the romantic tenor of his own musical voice. Although only two piano trios by Mendelssohn have come down to us, we know that he wrote one (which has since been lost) before he was eleven years old. Various letters also suggest that the genre interested him much more than his two contributions to it would indicate. During a visit to Paris when he was 23, he wrote to his sister Fanny of plans to compose another. But it wasn't until 1839 that he actually wrote his Trio No. 1 in d minor, op. 49. It was another six years before Mendelssohn dedicated his Trio no. 2 in c minor, op. 66 to Louis Spohr (1784-1859), one of the great violinists of his time and a prolific composer in his own right.

In late 1844, Mendelssohn had been feeling unsettled about working conditions in Berlin. In December, he decided to retire to Frankfurt for rest and recovery. By February 1845, he had begun work on the Trio No. 2, completing it in the early summer. The work's premiere performance later that year at the Gewandhaus featured Spohr on violin and Mendelssohn on piano.

In his c minor Trio Mendelssohn tilted the balance of the ensemble strongly toward the role of the piano. The first movement exhibits Mendelssohn's ability to move from quiet reflection to ebullient passionate explosions and back again with consummate skill. The second movement, "andante expressive" recalls many of the lyrical and elegant qualities of his many "Songs Without Words." In the third movement Mendelssohn provides another of his signature scherzos, this time a "perpetual motion" which in many ways resembles his famous Midsummer Night's Dream. It is fluidity and wit at its ultimate. The final movement, with the composer's "appassionato" marking, offers the listener an energy and depth almost symphonic in scope. By the Trio's end, a listener's spirit has been uplifted in a manner few other composers could achieve.

The Trio begins with a pedal point in the cello and drama in the piano opening the Allegro energico e con fuoco, moving on to string arpeggios and vehement piano chords. The lyrical E-flat Major second theme eases the tension. After an impassioned development and a recap, the canonic coda pits an augmented version of the opening against the original. Two themes, one tender, the other thoughtful, dominate the Andante espressivo (9/8), the midsection of which modulates to the tonic minor key.