Josef Suk's affinity for chamber music was matched by few of his Czech contemporaries. His first chamber compositions were written in his late teens at the Prague Conservatory, where he was a student in Antonin Dvorak's compositional class. With fellow students Karel Hoffmann, Otto Berger and Oskar Nedbal, Suk founded the Czech Quartet, an ensemble which was to gain considerable fame throughout Europe. Though the group's membership went through numerous changes, Suk maintained his post as second violinist in the quartet for forty years. His performing career was directly instrumental in the formulation of his many important chamber works.

The Op. 2 Trio was originally written when the composer was in his teens and studying at the conservatory. He was in the habit of playing Classical and Romantic chamber works at the home of a Dr. Hersch, a local physician and amateur musician, whose daughter also performed during these musical evenings. The work, originally composed for this group, underwent two revisions. First, due to the advice of Suk's composition teacher, Karel Stecker, one of the four movements was removed. Stecker was sufficiently pleased with the result that he included the revised Trio in a concert presented at the Conservatory to celebrate the arrival of Antonin Dvorak as composition professor. In 1891, after Suk had begun studying with Dvorak, he incorporated the latter's suggested alterations into the final version of the work.

© Margaret Godfrey, Rovi