Alexander ALYABYEV (1787-1851)
Piano Trio in E flat major in one movement (ca 1815) [12:14]
Violin Sonata in E minor (ca 1834) [22:34]
Piano Quintet in E flat major in one movement (ca 1817) [11:08]
Grand Trio in A minor (ca 1817/1835?) [19:42]
Beethoven Trio Bonn (Rinko Hama (piano); Mikhail Ovrutsky (violin); Grigory
Alumyan (cello)); Artur Hrobutsky (violin II); Vladimir Babeshko (viola)
rec. 2015, Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Köln (?).
Reviewed as 16-bit lossless download from eClassical
CAVI MUSIC 8.553338 [65:25]
Reading some commentaries, it might seem that Russia had
no home-grown composers before Mikhail Glinka. Certainly it was an area of
the arts in which Catherine the Great showed much less interest than others.
Nevertheless, they did exist and Alyabyev was one of the most prominent. He
is most remembered these days for his songs. As a consequence, this new release,
devoted to his chamber music, is very welcome.
Some biographical information is called for, and here the booklet notes are
very useful. Alyabyev was born in western Siberia, the son of the local governor.
Even at the end of the eighteenth century, Siberia was where political prisoners
were sent by the Russian state. Many of these were intellectuals and artists,
so Alyabyev grew up in a cultured environment, and was taught piano. At the
age of ten, he moved with his family to Saint Petersburg and then Moscow,
rounding his musical education with attendances at the theatre and concerts.
He fought in the war against Napoleon, reaching Paris before being badly wounded.
After being pensioned out of the army, he devoted himself to music and composition.
His most famous work is a song The Nightingale, written in the early
1820s, which became popular within and outside Russia, Liszt and Glinka both
using the melody for piano works. In 1825, Alyabyev, an inveterate gambler,
was involved in a brawl where one of the participants was killed. While murder
charges were never proven, he was imprisoned and then exiled to the town of
his birth. He returned to Moscow in 1843, but was banned from public performances.
One website describes this as the “discovery of a Russian Schubert”.
I’d agree with only one of those three descriptions: there is no doubt
that he was Russian. ArkivMusic lists 26 recordings containing his music,
and each of these works has been recorded at least twice before, so this is
hardly a discovery. While his lifetime certainly overlaps that of Schubert,
his music strikes me as being a little earlier, more Mozart and early Beethoven.
Given that Russia was on the periphery of musical developments in western
Europe, it is not surprising that the style may have lagged somewhat.
The single movement Trio in E flat, among his first earliest
chamber works, is labelled as “Unfinished” but this doesn’t
refer to the movement itself which clearly comes to a planned and logical
conclusion. It is a pleasant confection, but clearly one by someone still
feeling his way.
The Violin Sonata, the most substantial work here, was written
during his exile. The manuscript title is “Sonnet for Piano with Obbligato
Violin”, and certainly the sparkling first movement is dominated by
the piano. The rapturous slow movement shares the load more evenly, though
there is the sense that the piano is leading, and the violin . The finale
has a rondo-like structure, with the recurring theme akin to a rustic dance.
Of the various chamber ensembles with piano, the duo with violin is perhaps
my least favourite, but this is a really enjoyable work.
The Piano Quintet for piano, two violins, viola and cello
was a rare combination at this time: Boccherini and Dussek seem to be among
the only ones to have composed earlier works. It is the least inspired of
the four pieces, tending to repetitiveness. It is not clear whether the work
was abandoned or intended as a single movement.
The Grand Trio is my pick of the four works: if you like
the early Beethoven trios, you will love this. It is also the only work of
the four that I had heard before, and the Beethoven Trio Bonn give it so much
more life than the Borodins on Chandos. The opening movement begins in a restrained
mood, before bursting out into high spirits, led by the piano. The slow movement
is wistful and nostalgic, while the closing sprightly and playful Allegretto
contains the only elements that have a Russian feel to them.
I wasn’t entirely happy with the tonal quality of the violins, though
not enough to detract from the enjoyment, however. The sound quality is excellent:
clear and immediate without being too close.
All things considered, this is a thoroughly enjoyable recording, with two
works especially deserving of a wider audience.
David Barker
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