Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Piano Trio No 3 in F minor, Op 65 (1883) [36:14]
Piano Trio No 4 in E minor, Op 90 (Dumky) (1890-91) [29:43]
Trio des Alpes
rec. October 2018, Stello Molo Auditorium, Lugano, Italy
DYNAMIC CDS7851 [66:07]
Commentators discussing the Brahms influence on Dvořák's writing are given to citing the latter's Sixth Symphony, which shares a key (D
major) and a general mood (pastoral) with Brahms' Second. They're not wrong, but I daresay the F minor Trio, with its big-boned structure and cosmopolitan, Romantic style, better fills the bill. As the agitated Allegro grazioso second movement particularly indicates, this is hardly the Dvořák of sunny, Bohemian warmth. Even the Finale's second subject, melancholic as it is, is cast in rich, crisply defined Brahmsian contours; only the relaxed modal motif in the home stretch suggests the affectionate, folklike Dvořák.
The performance by the Trio des Alpes, appropriately, goes "full Brahms," giving itself fully to the impressive, expansive surges while maintaining warmth and tonal fullness. They allow expressive space, as in cellist Claude Hauri's wistful second-theme recap, but keep dotted rhythms are taut and alert. The sombre opening of the Poco adagio doesn't dawdle, eliding smoothly into flowing, major-key lyricism. Here, violinist Hana Kotková impresses with her tonal purity and pinpoint intonation in upward leaps; so does pianist Corrado Greco in his rich, impeccably balanced low chorale.
The Dumky are another matter altogether. Based on the Slavic dumka, each offers a ruminative or melancholy section - again with the melancholy - that alternates with or yields to livelier, more cheerful music. (Dvořák hedges his bets on those, perhaps: two are marked Vivace non troppo.) When I first heard this, in the Beaux Arts Trio's famous recording, I found it dull: perhaps those players were a bit too "non troppo," too aristocratic to tap into the score's full spirit. The Trio des Alpes, by contrast, offer almost everything you could want - if only Kotková's tone didn't turn grainy here at piano! The sprightly faster sections grow organically from the slower ones, producing a nice cohesion; only in the Andante moderato (quasi tempo di Marcia) in track 8 does a short patch of confused scansion mar the transition.
The recorded sound is gorgeous.
Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog
