Georges Enescu: Piano Trio, Piano Quintet & Aria and Scherzino (2013)
Georges Enescu: Piano Trio, Piano Quintet & Aria and Scherzino (2013)
X Lossless Decoder | Flac (Tracks + cue + log) | 1 CD | Full Scans | 275 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | Catalog Number: 10790
X Lossless Decoder | Flac (Tracks + cue + log) | 1 CD | Full Scans | 275 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | Catalog Number: 10790
In addition to being a world-class violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher, George Enescu was a well-renowned composer. In fact, his most celebrated violin pupil, Yehudi Menuhin, made the prediction that Enescu’s compositions would become ‘one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century’, and, indeed, in recent years Enescu’s works have become more widely performed.
This is the Schubert Ensemble’s second disc devoted to works by Enescu. Classic FM magazine wrote of the preceding volume: ‘The Schubert Ensemble can be applauded to the skies for bringing Enescu’s ridiculously neglected chamber music to the fore… excellent playing in a valuable disc that should help bring Enescu a step further towards the attention he deserves.’
The Piano Trio is one of the very few works that Enescu composed during the Second World War; however, it was not performed until years later, after it was discovered by the pianist Hilda Jerea who premiered it in 1967. After this performance the work disappeared from view for another three decades, until the Enescu authority Pascal Bentoiu presented his own in-depth edition of the work. The Schubert Ensemble planned to base this recording on Bentoiu’s edition of the score, but came to amend it in numerous ways after a close study of the composer’s heavily annotated manuscript: ‘Our admiration for Bentoiu increased as we worked, but we ended up making a large number of changes to his version, where we felt we could bring greater conviction to our performance and coherence to the piece… The end result of all this work was not an edition that we could claim is in any way definitive, and even necessarily an improvement on Bentoiu’s, but one that is our own and which helped us to feel more in touch with the piece and to bring greater conviction to our performance of it.’
Also on this disc, we find the brief Aria and Scherzino for violin, viola, cello, double-bass, and piano, and the Piano Quintet which, like the Piano Trio, was left unperformed for the duration of the composer’s lifetime. This work is inspired partly by folkdances, and partly by the compositional style of Enescu’s teacher, Gabriel Fauré.
The Schubert Ensemble has established itself over the last thirty years as one of the world’s leading exponents of music for piano and strings. Regularly giving more than fifty concerts a year in over forty different countries, it has more than eighty commissions to its name and has recorded more than thirty critically acclaimed CDs, many of them with Chandos Records.
Reviews: All of the works on this disc have been recorded before, though not often. The Piano Trio in A Minor, in a performance by the Brancusi Trio on Zig-Zag Territoires, received strong recommendations from Radu Lelutiu, Peter Rabinowitz, and yours truly, all in 35:6, and subsequently made Rabinowitz’s 2012 Want List.
This new recording of the Trio featuring members of the estimable Schubert Ensemble, a group whose virtues I’ve extolled in prior issues, gives the Brancusi a good run for its money. I have to confess that in auditioning the Brancusi’s CD for review, the overly resonant piano, which Lelutiu mentioned, didn’t particularly register with me. But now that I’m able to compare it to this new Chandos recording, I realize what Lelutiu meant. The Schubert’s players in this new release are better balanced, resulting in a sound that’s more pellucid. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the Schubert’s performance is better than the Brancusi’s, but, as noted in all three reviews, Enescu’s A-Minor Trio (1911–1916) represents a break from his earlier works, and its harmonic densities and contrapuntal textures are more audibly penetrated by Chandos’s clearer, more transparent recording.
The A-Minor Piano Quintet, a much later work dating from 1940, had to wait almost a quarter of a century for its first performance, which took place in 1964, nine years after Enescu’s death. This relatively late score in Enescu’s catalog seems to return to the composer’s Romantic roots and to his studies with Gabriel Fauré. The French influence is strongly felt, but the music’s Gallic urbane fluency is met with an earthier Romanian robustness, resulting in a rare blend of aloof refinement and fiery passion.
Martin Anderson, who reviewed a recording of the Quintet performed by the Solomon Ensemble in 27:2, may have been right when he said that “George Enescu is the greatest 20th-century composer whose greatness is not generally recognized.” Whether that’s so or not, I can’t say—there may be other candidates equally worthy of such ranking—but Enescu’s sole Piano Quintet is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. I don’t have the Solomon version on Naxos reviewed by Anderson, but I do have Gidon Kremer’s Kremerata Baltica recording on Nonesuch, coupled with Enescu’s C-Major Octet. I’ve never been a Kremer fan; his playing is too aggressive and acerbic sounding for my taste. So, the Schubert Ensemble’s performance on this new release comes as a welcome replacement. The players find the perfect balance and blend between the music’s earlier mentioned refinement and passion.
The Aria and Scherzino is the earliest work on the disc, dating back to 1908, and it too, like the Quintet, was never performed during the composer’s lifetime. In two very brief movements lasting a combined total of five-and-a-half minutes, the piece is said to be partly inspired by Romanian folkdances and, once again, the influence of Enescu’s teacher Fauré—at least according to the album note. The folk-dance part is evident in the Scherzino , which is clearly a spirited, rhythmically propelled piece, but I’m afraid I don’t hear Fauré in the rather too schmaltzy Aria , which somehow suggests to me what Elgar’s Sospiri would sound like if it were arranged by Wolf-Ferrari for the soundtrack of a soap opera. Perhaps the reason it was never performed in Enescu’s lifetime is because he was embarrassed at having written it.
That said, Romanian-born violinist Remus Azoitei, a student of Itzhak Perlman and Julliard’s Dorothy DeLay, wrings from the solo part every last drop of tearful heartbreak in the Aria , and in the Scherzino , Azoitei springs into action with playing that’s as sprightly and flamboyant, in a good way, as it was sentimental, in a way that fit the music, in the Aria.
I can’t recall a time that the Schubert Ensemble has disappointed me, and their performances on this disc are no exception. This is a significant addition to Enescu’s chamber music discography, and a beautifully produced recording that is strongly recommended to all.
Tracklisting:
Piano Quintet, Op. 29 (1940) 33:44
in A minor - in a-Moll - en la mineur
for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello
1 I Con moto molto moderato - 8:37
2 Andante sostenuto e cantabile 11:13
3 II Vivace, ma non troppo - Più tranquillo - A tempo I - Più tranquillo - 4:56
4 L'istesso tempo 8:50
Alexandra Wood violin
Douglas Paterson viola
Piano Trio (c. 1911-16) 2111
in A minor - in a-Moll - en la mineur
for Piano, Violin, and Cello
Edition by Pascal Bentoiu revised by Schubert Ensemble
5 I Allegro moderato 7:00
6 II Allegretto con variazioni. Allegretto moderato - Presto - 5:50
7 III Andante - Vivace amabile 8:11
Aria and Scherzino (c. 1908) 5:23
for Solo Violin, Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, Double-bass, and Piano
Edited by Sherban Lupu
8 Aria. Lent 2:14
in D major - in D-Dur - en ré majeur
9 Scherzino. Assez vif 3:07
in B miinor - in h-Moll - en si mineur
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Thanks to the original releaser