American Piano Trios
Amy BEACH (1867-1944) Trio in A minor Op.150 [12:13]
Charles IVES (1874-1954) Trio [23:51]
Ernest BLOCH (1880-1959) Three Nocturnes [7:37]
Aaron COPLAND (1900-1990) Vitebsk - Study on a Jewish
Theme [11:34]
Henry COWELL (1897-1965) Trio, Four Combinations of Three
Instruments [9:38]
Hartley Trio(Jacqueline Hartley (violin); Lionel Handy (cello); Caroline
Clemmow (piano))
rec. no details given
DAL SEGNO DSPRCD057 [64:51]
All of the composers represented on this CD have reputations for producing
surprising works, and there are certainly a few surprises here. The composers
you might expect to be the most radical - Ives and Cowell - turn in the most
listenable scores, while among the more traditional names, Copland in particular
indulges in some uncharacteristically caustic Modernism.
Don't be put off though, because every work is fascinating, and the other
composers grab the attention just as well, and without recourse to unfriendly
harmonies. A late work by Amy Beach opens the programme. There is a feeling
of French Impressionism here, but she always keeps her feet on the ground
with rigorous Brahmsian thematicism. One of her favourite textures is a solo
string line with wispy obbligato from the piano right-hand. It's all very
attractive, and there is some real dramatic substance too.
The early Piano Trio by Charles Ives anticipates many of the musical ideas
for which he later became famous. Disjunction, especially between the instruments,
is the order of the day, and however progressive his textures become, they
are always underpinned with a wry humour. The second movement is entitled
TSIAJ, an acronym for This Scherzo Is A Joke. The movement is a classic
Ives montage, with all sorts of borrowed tunes and melodic ideas overlaid
and brought into collision.
The Bloch Three Nocturnes, as the name suggests, is a more staid affair.
Each of the three has a very particular atmosphere, dreamy but with clear
harmonic identity. Each comes in at between two and three minutes, which is
really a bit short for this sort of music, and Bloch's minimalist successors
would have no qualms about stretching each out to at least an hour.
Vitebsk by Copland is apparently a study on a Jewish Theme. Judging
by the angularity of its harmonies and voice leading, he is intent on exaggerating
the exotic dimension of his material. But while the ethnography may be suspect,
the music hits the mark, and Copland cleverly employs the distinctive motivic
identity of his theme to create propulsion and identity.
The Henry Cowell Trio, Four Combinations of Three Instruments is the
real surprise on the disc. Stylistically, it is easily the most conservative
of the works. It is easy-going and melodic, often playing out as just one
line doubled between the instruments or simple two part textures. But if you
listen closely, you can hear some distinctive Cowell traits. In the second
movement, for example, the piano plays almost throughout in clusters, but
the clusters are carefully chosen and played so quietly that they sound like
extended diatonic chords. An experimental work, then, but one that is also
calculated not to offend.
The performances are good, if not outstanding. The intonation between the
violin and cello is an occasional problem. The recording was made in 1992,
and while the sound is acceptable, the recording shows its age. I'd have liked
more piano in the mix, not that it is ever obscured, but it is sometimes deprived
of the chance to lead the ensemble.
This is a fascinating disc, and the gaps it is likely to plug in your CD collection
are the sort of gaps you didn't know you had. The packaging is on the perfunctory
side, and at the risk of sounding hopelessly pedantic, the liner-notes could
do with a friendlier font. But I'd recommend it to the curious, and especially
to players in adventurous piano trios on the look-out for new repertoire.
Many of these works deserve a much wider audience.
Gavin Dixon
Many of these works deserve a much wider audience
… and a review by Rob Barnett
Dal Segno in a burst of reissues regale us afresh with discs that may well
have escaped us first time around. This is a well mixed collection and is
a successor to the Hartley Trio's British and Czech piano trio discs: Dvorák:
Piano Trio in G minor, op.26*; Fibich: Trio in F minor* Gamut GAMCD 523 (1991);
Bridge: Phantasie in C minor; Clarke: Piano Trio*; Ireland: Phantasie in A
minor* Gamut GAMCD 518 (1990)
I have not heard the others but this one adopts a warmly cloaked sound - a
cocooned effect with calorific radiance aplenty.
The Beach is romantic and witty, rather Brahmsian yet pointed and florid.
It's a confident piece of writing recalling the Franck chamber works. The
Ives Trio - over three movements - manages both avant-garde and fragmented
expressionism. Its second movement is frenetic and makes wildly anarchic and
discordant play across some 20 popular tunes. It’s the sort of piece
that would at one stage have appealed to Peter Maxwell Davies - it is termed
TSIAJ (This Scherzo Is A Joke). The trio dissonantly melts Rock of Ages
out of focus and back and out again. Fascinating.
Bloch, we are reminded by the pithy notes, became an American citizen in 1924,
the same year in which he wrote these Three Nocturnes. The first of
these is an Andante, highly intense and darkly optimistic with gritty
courage and chiming beauty in the piano part at 00:29. The Andante quieto
is tender and close to sentimental. Ruthless determination invigorates the
Tempestoso which is further evidence that when Bloch sets about nocturne
writing he is not interested just in sleep. It makes an edgy end to the Nocturnes.
Copland's Vitebsk is dedicated to Roy Harris. It's a vinegary and uningratiating
piece: much troubled, melodramatic and forthright. It ends quietly.
Henry Cowell is a fascinating composer and something of an undiscovered colossus
such is the span of his output. His Trio - Four Combinations of Three Instruments
- is another work in which dissonance is accommodated with subtlety alongside
a more slowly evolutionary and limpid melodic line. Most striking of the movements
is the dewdrop Bachian chiming and trilling of the final and magical Largo.
The four movements deploy: I, violin and cello II, violin and piano, III,
cello and piano, IV, all three instruments.
As is characteristic of these Dal Segnos no total playing time is declared
and the notes are anonymous.
A subtle collection satisfyingly avoiding the obvious.
Rob Barnett
A subtle collection satisfyingly avoiding the obvious.