André Previn: Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano (1996) 

00:00 - I. Lively
06:10 - II. Slow
14:04 - III. Jaunty
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Bassoon: Dorota Cegielska
Oboe: Agata Piotrowska-Bartoszek
Piano: Tomasz Bartoszek
Year of Recording: 2021
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"In the 1990s Andre Previn lightened his conducting obligations to devote more time to composing. This led to a corpus of works that included numerous concertos, two operas (including A Streetcar Named Desire, premiered in 1998 by San Francisco Opera), and many chamber pieces. The sound of his Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano (composed in 1994 and premiered two years later) seems redolent of twentieth-century France, recalling the trio written for those forces in 1926 by Francis Poulenc, whose ghost lurks around many corners of this piece.
The first movement (marked Lively) initially pits the oboe and bassoon as a team “versus” the piano in a section whose opening motif bristles with a rocket of sixteenth-notes; but soon the bassoon introduces a more lyrical melody, rather Mozartian in its contours. The material of both sections is developed in some detail, sometimes spiced by sudden shifts of meter.
The piano opens the second movement (Slow) with a lament of far-reaching contours. When the oboe enters, it does so with the instruction “lonely,” as the composer makes use of the more doleful propensities of the instrument’s tone. The subdued mood maintains throughout, with the winds only once (at the movement’s center) allowing their sorrow to break forth to fortissimo-and then withdrawing to let the piano pursue its pensive thoughts solo.
Spirits are restored, however, for the finale (Jaunty); as in the opening movement, the players are somewhat segregated at the snazzy-jazzy outset-piano vs. winds-and the bassoon introduces a slower section in counterpoint to a spacious line in the piano. The moods alternate with some suddenness, but the three players unite in the final pages for a high-energy conclusion." (James Keller)
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