Piano Trio

With orchestral concerts on hold for the foreseeable future, the Linos Piano Trio’s Stolen Music project takes inspiration from earlier times and brings distilled versions of great orchestral works to smaller spaces.

What ensemble could be more predestined for Ludwig van Beethovens piano trios than the Vienna Piano Trio? Following its brilliant beginning with the Trios op. 70, this top ensemble from Vienna now presents the magnificent and mighty Archduke Trio op. 97 in surprisingly close album association with the standout Trio in C minor from op. 1, a work with trailblazing qualities that immediately caught Joseph Haydns attention. And with a beginning that must have immediately irritated listeners of those times: is that still the introduction or already the theme?

Highly praised for his orchestral works, Tchaikovsky never reached great popularity as a chamber music composer but, although his chamber output does not comprise many titles, it does includes works of distinct value, such as the beautiful but little known Trio for violin, cello and piano, Op.50 which we are featuring on this release. The work was composed in memory of his friend Nikolaj Rubinstein, who had passed away at the age of 46 and was considered at the time one of the greatest European pianists. It was premiered in Moscow on 30 October, 1882.

Ernest and persuasive while it's spinning, the better qualities of this 2006 recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio dissipate soon after the disc stops. With pianist Yefim Bronfman, violinist Gil Shaham, and cellist Truls Mørk as partners in the proceedings, the playing itself is first-class. Each is a highly regarded virtuoso, and collectively they form an agile but cogent chamber ensemble. Interpretively, their focus is on expressivity.

This album concludes The Brahms Trio's five-volume survey of the piano trio in Russia with remarkable works by composers whose names have all but disappeared from the musical world's collective memory. Vladimir Dyck, a student of Widor at the Paris Conservatoire, took French nationality in 1910 but his life came to a tragic end when he and his family were arrested in 1943 and sent to Auschwitz. His Piano Trio, Op. 25 contrasts Russian soulfulness with the lightness and deft scoring he brought to his film compositions. Constantin von Sternberg's genial Op. 104 reflects his career as a virtuoso pianist, while Sergey Youferov's expansive and nostalgic Op. 52 is a farewell to the Russian 'Silver Age', a world about to be destroyed by revolution.