Admirers of Turina’s
chamber works have had good reason to
be grateful to the CD. Whereas before
there was a meagre representation we
now have a relative abundance; the fine
violin sonatas are taking their place
on disc, if not on the concert platform,
which is where fiddle players should
be playing them. But the Trios are also
coming into their own. The Russian-born,
English-based Bekova Trio has recorded
them, as has Trío Arbós.
Into the market now comes the American-domiciled
Damocles Trio with their myth-sporting
moniker to the fore. And thankfully
their playing is full of tonal expressivity
quite sufficient to reveal Turina’s
liquid inspirations.
The First Trio of 1926
is a three-movement work of considerable
distinction. Violin and cello entwine
at the outset with a certain coiled
seriousness before the piano refines
and simplifies with its own opening
statement. As Turina opens out the increasingly
effulgent writing one admires the way
he builds and relaxes tension, spins
succulent melodies – and ends with a
pert nostalgic reminiscence of the opening
material. Because Franckian cyclical
development was very much Turina’s modus
operandi, as these works all show, and
he was a master of that form. The second
movement Theme and Variations on various
Spanish dances has ebullience and lyricism
in abundance and also a touch of a Gershwin
influence (I don’t know how much Gershwin
he could have known but just enough
even by this early date I suspect).
He builds atmosphere with muted strings
– helped by this group’s charismatically
warm tonal blending. Fluent and optimistic,
though lit with moments of impressionist
introspection - neatly brushed aside
- the finale is full of decorous peals
and great excitement.
Certainly Turina’s
debt to Debussy and to the Parisian
school was strong so it’s surprising
to hear the sturdy Brahmsian tread of
the opening movement of the Second Trio
of seven years later. But there’s also
a latent sweetness here, French for
all the underlying Spanish rhythms.
The slow movement of this very concise
trio has some scurrying strings over
a more placid chordal piano base. Whereas
the finale opens portentously, with
aspirations to Mussorgskian piano writing
and plenty of terpsichorean drive, guitar
imitations and fire. It’s the embodiment
of Turina’s infectious Iberian drama.
The last work he wrote for the piano
trio was Círculo. Though he completed
it in 1936 it maintains the precepts
by which he stood compositionally speaking.
Cyclical, impressionist, full of light,
lyric grace, though in the second of
its two movements the big, bristly pizzicati
and declamatory piano add more hints
of Gershwin. The finale is colourful,
delicate and pastel hued; it’s a work
that charts the course of a day and
despite the abstraction is a piano trio
in all but name.
What gives this disc
even greater cachet is the inclusion
of the Piano Quartet. Couched once more
in his favoured three movements and
with a tripartite finale this is a work
saturated in Andalusian melody – refined,
with a plangent role for viola (the
excellent Lawrence Dutton). The warm
and skirling Vivo second movement sees
Zapateado rhythms alternating with more
intense moments of impressionism and
the finale takes up the theme; plenty
of clarity and a triumphant, affirmative
end.
The performances, as
suggested are warm and affectionate;
the string players take particular care
to harmonise tonal shading and vibrato
and pianist Adam Kent never overpowers
them. Notes are good, and tri-lingual.
The recording matches the performances
– not too distant and very warm without
blunting rhythm. This is a venturesome
disc and strongly welcomed.
Jonathan Woolf
The Damocles Trio 
