Two masterpieces of Russian romantic-era chamber music performed by a talented young Italian trio.
The chamber music of Anton Arensky (1861-1906) embodies a happy and
inspired synthesis of two contrasting sound-worlds: the peculiarly
Russian language of Rimsky-Korsakov and the ‘Mighty Handful’, and that
of Western-European accents exemplified in the sphere of chamber music
by Brahms, but filtered through Tchaikovsky’s West- leaning approach.
It’s Mendelssohn who comes to mind in the vernal surge of energy that
opens the First Piano Trio which is Arensky’s best-known work beyond
his piano music. The sombre third-movement elegy is a tribute to the
cellist Davidoff, and accordingly opens with a soulful cello melody,
before an impassioned finale banishes all introspection.
Composed over a decade later in 1905, the Second Trio replaces such
youthful energy for a more concise and refined harmonic idiom that even
brings to mind Gabriel Fauré at points such as the polished, elusive
second-movement Romance. After a delightfully capricious Scherzo full of
subtle rhythmic shifts and conversational hesitations, the Second Trio
concludes with an expansive set of variations on a noble theme in
Tchaikovskian vein.
Formed in 2016, the Carducci Trio has already won praise for its
accomplished performances of Russian music in particular, having
recently made a tour of China and given London performances at the Royal
Albert Hall (Elgar Room) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields. This
is the Trio’s debut recording.
