Piano Trio

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.

Bedřich Smetana is definitely considered the founder of the Czech school, thanks to his symphonic work and his incidental music, marked by a strong patriotic and nationalist trait. He was deeply influenced by the political events which took place in Prague in 1848, after which he became actively involved in the cultural life of his country. Born in 1824 and acclaimed as a violin prodigy at the age of four, during his studies he was introduced to composition for various ensembles and, in 1855, to chamber music.

Die Kammermusiker*innen Chul-Kyu Jung, Si-Hyun Lee und Min-Ji Kang schlossen sich 2019 mit dem gemeinsamen Ziel zusammen, einen positiven Einfluss auf die Gesellschaft auszuüben, und gründeten das Amour Piano Trio.

In their second album for Resonus, the Gould Piano Trio returns with a recording of Franz Schubert’s Piano Trios. Apart from a very early single movement written when he was fifteen years of age, Schubert came to the piano trio late in his short career and left only two full-length works in the form, written in 1827–8. By the time Schubert came to write his piano trios, the form had taken on a new stature thanks to work from composers such as Beethoven.

Charles Ives’ (1874–1954) only Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano is without question, one of his most major works. Amy Beach (1867–1944) was recognized in her lifetime as one of the most acclaimed American composers – her Trio, Op. 150, was composed in 1938 and is steeped in the developmental processes of late-nineteenth-century models while quoting two Inuit folk songs. Although born and educated in England, Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) wrote her Piano Trio as part of a chamber music competition in Pittsfield MA and has been described as the finest work in the genre by any British composer.

The works on this CD stem from the early and from the late period of Debussys creative life, and are for these reasons not typical Debussy, in the sense that they eschew the impressionistic features so often associated with the composer. The piano trio is a sumptuously romantic work, with echoes of Schumann and Franck, whereas the cello sonata and violin sonata are part of the 6 sonata project which Debussy started in 1915, but didnt complete because of his untimely death in 1918 (only 3 sonatas were composed). The music is transparent, with neoclassical hints, and sometimes with Stravinskian bite and humour. The musicians on this CD, Federico Guglielmo, Luigi Puxeddu and Jolanda Violante have won their spurs mainly in Early Music; therefore their view on these works is fresh and open, with infectious esprit and zest. As bonus a series of short and much loved pieces in arrangements: Reverie, Arabesque, Minstrels, La fille aux cheveux de lin, and two early original miniatures for cello and piano.

This remastered 2024 edition of Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 7, Op. 97 "Archduke" and Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1, D. 898 & Octet in F Major, D. 803 brings a fresh vibrancy to classic recordings by legendary musicians David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, and Lev Oborin.