Philipp Scharwenka (1847-1917)
Piano Trio No 1 in C-sharp minor, Op 100 (1897)
Piano Trio No 2 in G major, Op 112 (1902)
Trio Gustav
rec. 2021, Chiesa dei Battuti Bianchi, Fossano, Italy
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 96386 [45]
Philipp Scharwenka is the elder of the two composer brothers, Xaver being three years younger. While the latter won most fame through his prodigious talents as a pianist, Philipp concentrated on composing and teaching (Otto Klemperer was one of his students in Berlin). In contrast to his brother’s showy compositions, Philipp’s are more restrained.
Having just written a review of chamber music by Ferdinand Hiller, where I commented on the extended durations of a majority of the movements, I was pleased to see here that all six movements were between five and nine minutes, a sign that Scharwenka recognised the quality of brevity.
Trio No 1 is unusual in two regards: firstly, its movements are placed slow-fast-fast, and secondly, its key signature: there are very few piano trios in C-sharp minor, and no well-known ones. The nervous scurrying rhythms of the middle Allegro bring Mendelssohn to mind, and it is music of that era (throw Schumann into the mix) that seems to be Scharwenka’s most obvious inspiration. If that makes them a little outdated, then so be it, but after a sequence of underwhelming recordings in my most recent batch of discs for review, this has been a very pleasant surprise. The G major trio probably works a little better by having the conventional arrangement of movements, and its closing Allegro con spirito really buzzes along.
Trio Gustav, which despite its Northern European-sounding name, is comprised of Italian performers, and they give these works their all. Their ensemble in some of the very fast sections is excellent. There are times when the tone produced by the violinist becomes a little shrill, even though he plays an Amati. I do acknowledge my sensitivity (possibly over-sensitivity) to this.
The main criticism of this disc is its miserly runtime. Yes, Brilliant is a budget label, but the cost of this on a per minute basis makes it little different to a full-price release. The Wikipedia and IMSLP works pages for Scharwenka list an earlier trio (Op 26). It may be that the score for this work has been lost, as it was also not included on a disc by Trio Parnassus on MDG. Nevertheless, there are a number of miniatures for violin or cello and piano which should have been included to fill the disc. There are no problems with the booklet notes and sound quality.
I would have liked to have given this an unreserved endorsement because of the quality of the music and, for the most part, the performances, but the short runtime is too much a negative.
David Barker
Published: October 13, 2022
