Sunny and dark music for string trio

String Trios by Dohnányi, Enescu, Françaix, Sibelius & Bach

The string trio is one of my favourite formats; it doesn't have the baggage of the string quartet: that daunting mass of masterworks from Haydn to the present day. The String Trio has, on the one hand, the light serenade side, and on the other the intensity of great string trios by Schoenberg, Villa-Lobos and Schnittke. In the middle is the perfection of Mozart's great string trio from 1788, the Divertimento, K. 563.

The first two works chosen by the exceptional group Leipziger Streichtrio - violinist Adrian Iliescu, violist Atilla Aldemir and cellist Rodin Moldovan - try for that Goldilocks medium attained by Mozart. This is joyful music, but not completely ignoring dark undercurrents. Ernö Dohnányi's Serenade for String Trio, Op 10, is a relatively early work, written in 1902. It takes as its formal model not Mozart's Divertimento, but rather Beethoven's Serenade for String Trio, op. 8, from 1796-97. Jean Françaix's String Trio, from 1933, is a neo-classical gem, which exemplifies the modus operandi of Les Six: slightly sad nostalgia, slightly ironic romps, slightly erudite fugal passages, always having fun with serious matters. 

Jean Sibelius's String Trio, which dates from 1894 is a more serious beast. This is an almost altogether stern work, and though it's only 8 minutes long, it has a symphonic feel to it. When have you ever seen Sibelius smiling in a portrait? *

There are two additional pieces in this interesting program, which one might consider encores. George Enescu's Aubade, from 1899, is a bit of fun, a rustic folkloric piece full of swoops and pizzicati. Andras von Toszeghi's arrangement of J. S. Bach's great Chaconne from the 2nd Partita for Solo Violin is substantial, and interesting. Mozart himself transcribed six Bach Preludes & Fugues for string trio in 1788, K. 404a. I love listening to the Chaconne in any guise - I especially enjoy Brahms' version for piano, and Leopold Stokowski's for full orchestra. But this isn't quite a complete success as an arrangement - the violin gets to keep most of the good bits, and the viola and cello have the leftovers that make the soloist sweat while double-stopping in the original. It's neither fish nor fowl, but tasty anyway! Altogether this makes an exceptional hour of music.

* Here's your answer: Werner Bischof very nearly got a full smile out of Jean Sibelius in this 1948 portrait.

 

Music of real interest, beautifully played

February 5, 2015:

The 1st Piano Quintet of 1895 was Erno Dohnanyi’s first published piece of music. As liner-note writer Richard Whitehouse says, it’s among the more impressive op. 1s in spite of the composer’s early years. While it doesn’t stray far from its late-Romantic German models, it has a pleasingly relaxed feel to it, staying away from artificial significance and complexity. The musicians brought together for this disc, the Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch and the Enso Quartet (one of my favourite string quartets since their Emmy-nominated Ginastera recording), keep things moving along briskly, making sure the teenaged composer’s climaxes aren’t too emo. I certainly enjoyed this piece more than I expected.

Though written in that portentous year of 1914, little note is made of modernist currents in the second Piano Quintet, and the context remains Vienna in the 1890s. Even so, the writing is more assured and the musical moods are quite gripping. It seems so much easier to appreciate conservative music from the early and middle parts of the 20th century from our vantage point in the 21st. From here it sounds like either good music or not, either original or not, whatever our favoured system might be. The second Piano Quintet especially is worth a listen now, though it broke no new ground in its day. Recorded in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio way back in May 2007, the estimable Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver provide their usual first class sound. With performances as good as this, you want to hear the musicians clear and bright, and that’s what we get from this Naxos release.

Dohnanyi from Tallahassee

From August 9, 2014:

Before coming across this disc I knew Florida State University as the American home of the great physicist Paul Dirac, who spent the last decade of his life in Tallahassee. Now I know that FSU attracted another world-class talent, the composer Erno Dohnanyi, who also spent his last decade there, as composer-in-residence until 1960. Oh yes, I just remembered something else I know about FSU: the Seminoles beat the Auburn Tigers for the National NCAA Men’s Football Championship last January.

This disc has home-field advantage: it features the Florida State University Orchestra under conductor Alexander Jimenez. The symphony is in the full- if not over-blown Romantic idiom of the mid-19th Century. Its themes are lofty and its architecture is grandiose, though the construction is careful. Indeed, the composer completely overhauled the work in the mid-50s, reining it in from an hour to only 50 minutes. It all seems exceptionally well-argued, if at times a bit bland. That’s not to say there aren’t felicitous bits; I loved Dohnanyi’s presentation of the Bach theme he uses for his final movement variations. And the mocking Burla third-movement is often a lot of fun.

As to interpretation and orchestral playing, this disc comes a close second to the mid-1990s Chandos disc with the BBC Philharmonic under Matthias Bamert. The Chandos disc has a more substantial filler in the marvellous Symphonic Minutes, though the Naxos disc’s Two Songs are lovely, and baritone Evan Thomas Jones is excellent. The sound in both discs is excellent. I wonder if Naxos will record the first Symphony with the FSU Orchestra & Jimenez, to go up against another excellent Chandos/BBC/Bamert disc.