Giuseppe MARTUCCI (1856-1909)
Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 62 (1883) [41:00]
Piano Trio No. 1 in C major, Op. 59 (1882) [33:42]
Trio Vega
rec. 2014, Auditorio Manuel de Falla, Granada, Spain
NAXOS 8.573438 [74:42]
The Naxos blurb tells us that “Giuseppe Martucci was one of a trio of pioneering Italian composers known collectively as Il ponte (The Bridge)” – the others were Giovanni Sgambati and Antonio Barzini – “who were determined to break away from opera’s dominance in Italian musical life”, hoping instead to establish a purely instrumental tradition based on Germanic models.
Martucci, a noted pianist and conductor as well as a composer, was “responsible for introducing Italian audiences to the symphonies of Brahms”, according to Katy Hamilton’s program note. His two Piano Trios clearly show that composer’s influence: in the long-breathed, lyrical lines for the violin and cello, sometimes positioned in thirds or sixths; in the use of rippling midrange figures in the piano to fill in the textures; in the juxtaposition of duple and triple rhythmic groupings. In the finale of the E-flat Trio, the third group even brings a suggestion of Brahms’s Hungarian or ‘Gypsy’ style.
Other aspects of the scores are distinctly foreign to the Brahms aesthetic. The bittersweet yearning at the start of the E-flat Trio’s Adagio, for one, approaches the sentimental as Brahms never did. The bubbling cauldron of the C major’s Scherzo – annotator Katy Hamilton aptly describes it as “demonic” – is effective, but suggests Saint-Saëns and other, more demonstrative Romantics.
Martucci’s themes are appealing, suggesting the ‘vernal’ or ‘autumnal’ side of Brahms. Where the Italian falls short of his model, however, is in matters of form. It can be hard to tell exactly where you are within a given movement, particularly in the E-flat Trio, which, for whatever reason, is presented first here. Hamilton, in her program note, confidently discusses development sections and such – perhaps she had access to a score, and could see the relationships – but I heard the first movement as an extended free fantasia: it’s not “too long”, but overly discursive. So, too, the Adagio third movement, even if the exploratory dissonances in the home stretch pique interest. Neither is there any clear unifying element among the Finale’s three disparate themes – a bounding first theme, an oddly gemütlich chorale, and the previously mentioned Gypsy music. Only the second movement, a traditional ABA Scherzo with what sounds like a telescoped recap, fits neatly into a standard structural model.
The first movement of the earlier, C major Trio begins promisingly, a somewhat formal opening statement moving smoothly into a smaller-scaled, unsettled second theme, but like its counterpart, is hard to sort out aurally. It does, however, take in vivid dramatic gestures and affecting harmonic turns, and the other three movements are markedly clearer. The second is the boiling Scherzo mentioned earlier, with a quieter Trio in the same tempo. The Andante con moto, dignified and simply lyrical at the start, gradually becomes more searching and expressive without losing its poise. After two slashing, peremptory opening chords, the Finale is cheerful – the first subject is genial, the second more light-fingered (figuratively and literally) – and works its way to a satisfying finish.
Whatever my reservations about the music, there’s no questioning the enthusiasm and commitment of the Trio Vega. Cellist Orfilia Salz Vega intones her lyric lines with melting expression. Violinist Marc Paquin occasionally sounds inhibited, but brings a similar feeling to the cantabiles, and he and Salz Vega handle the occasional cruel unisons expertly. The pianist, Domenico Codispoti, particularly shines in the clean yet full-bodied articulations of the C major's Scherzo. The recorded sound is excellent.
Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog
Previous review: David Barker
