I enjoyed immensely
the Swiss Piano Trio’s www.schweizer-klaviertrio.ch recording of Mendelssohn’s piano trios
Op.49 and Op.66 issued by Audite www.audite.de
last year http://theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/mendelssohn-lightweight-composer.html
and their new release from Audite of
Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor Op.17 coupled with Robert Schumann’s
Fantasiestücke Op.88 and Piano Trio No.3 in G minor Op.110 is no less fine.
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| Audite SACD 92.549 |
A lovely lyrical outpouring opens the allegro moderato of Clara
Schumann’s G minor Piano Trio with piano phrases that recall Robert
Schumann, particularly his Piano Concerto. The Swiss Piano Trio are at turns
sensitive, passionate, richly melodic, forcefully compelling. Their playing always
has such terrific ensemble and precision, with them alive to every nuance,
making this trio sound a wonderful piece.
The scherzo opens
with, to my ears, a slightly Scottish inflection and is in the style of a
minuet whilst in the initially relaxed andante
the piano opens before the violin enters in a beautifully conceived melody
which both violin and cello continue. The strings of the Swiss Piano Trio,
Angela Golubeva (violin) and Sébastian Singer (cello) have a lovely timbre and
there is some great playing from their pianist, Martin Lucas when the music
becomes more animated. In the allegretto
again the piano plays a quite dominant role in this wonderful theme. The trio
raise this fairly straightforward music by bringing out so much passion and
drama. The latter stages of the finale are almost Brahmsian in their passion
and Clara Schumann shows that she had a considerable compositional talent.
April 1842 marked an outpouring of music from Robert Schumann.
By the end of July he had written three String Quartets Op. 41 No’s 1 – 3, and
in October he had written the Piano Quintet Op.44. Soon after he wrote the Fantasiestücke Op.88 (revised in 1850).
Of the Fantasiestücke Schumann noted that ‘…they seemed to please players and
listeners alike, in particular Mendelssohn.’
The Fantasiestücke
opens with a short, attractive Romanze
with the Swiss Piano Trio providing a lovely atmospheric sound, full of warmth.
The second movement humoreske is
played with great precision and panache with a lovely light-hearted feel. Given
that the piano provides so much of the dominant theme (it could almost be an
arrangement of a piano piece), it is essential that the string players provide
texture and interest as they certainly do plentifully here. In the wistful duet Langsam und mit Ausdruck there is
some exquisite playing as the tune is passed around the three instrumentalists. The finale
Im Marsch – Tempo is played with
striking precision in the rapidly fleeting moments of this movement.
Written in the year 1851, which also brought that autumn his
rescored Symphony in D (published as No.4), are two violin sonatas, the A minor
Op.105 and the D minor Op.121, the overtures to Schiller’s Braut von Messina
Op.100, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Op.128 and Goethe’s Hermann and Dorothea, two
secular cantatas, Der Rose Pilgerfahrt Op.112 and Der Königssohn Op. 116, and
the Piano Trio No.3 in G minor Op.110.
In the stormy opening, bewegt,
doch nicht zu rasch, of the Piano
Trio No.3 the Swiss Piano Trio provide great variety where, despite a new
theme occurring part way through, the music has the same basic rhythm. There is
such passionate playing that brings out Schumann’s emotional intentions,
something that is often lost in this music. In the restrained slow movement ziemlich langsam, this trio draws so much from the music, particularly
in the stormy central section where there is some terrific playing, full of
fire. The third movement rasch is a scherzo,
with a beautiful middle section, that is full of vigour and changing rhythms
brilliantly played by the Swiss Piano Trio. The final movement, kraftig, mit humor, pulls together the
preceding movements. There is some lovely playing from Martin Lucas and string
playing of superb precision and character from Angela Golubeva and Sébastian
Singer. This is a fiendishly difficult movement that finds the Swiss Piano Trio
in superb form, pulling together all the changes that occur.
With a first rate recording and excellent notes, this new
release is highly recommended.
The Swiss Piano Trio have already recorded Schumann’s Piano
Trio No.1 in D minor Op.63 and Piano Trio No.2 in F major Op.80.
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| Audite SACD 92.654 |
I haven’t yet heard the earlier Schumann disc but on the
evidence of this new release they are performances that should not be missed.
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