Guarneri Trio Prague

Rejcha’s life story would provide ample material for a blockbuster film: at the age of eleven he ran away from home to gain a musical education. He was a masterful flautist, violinist and pianist.

By the age of fifteen he had become the flautist in the orchestra of Max Franz, Elector of Cologne - next to the young violist Beethoven.

Rejcha was also a close friend of Joseph Haydn. As a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris, he had the opportunity to influence the further direction his pupils (Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod, Franck, etc.) would take. Rejcha’s six large concertante trios, three of which are contained on this CD, were first published in Paris in 1824. In addition to the composer’s inexhaustible invention, his works also owe their great success to the virtuoso demands placed on all three instruments. This was a great challenge for the Guarneri Trio, who after a quarter of a century rank among the world’s finest owing to their interplay, virtuosity and sonic qualities.

Listen to how the priceless Guarneri instruments sound in the hands of these superlative musicians.

The trio in A, imbued with astonishing juvenile ardour, it's obviously the work of a pianist writing for himself in his Sturm und Drang period. Featuring a gushing overabundant thematic profusion, it is quite close to the style of the first version of the trio in B, Op. 8.

The Trio in C appears as a model of balance between great melodic richness and a lofty mastery of form and freedom of inspiration. Here, the Phantasie spirit remains, but a post-Beethovian vigour gives density to a discourse that is successively meditative, pathetic and rustling 'with nocturnal whispers', coming to a close in full light on a robust peasant dance. Most likely coming from the same pen, probably some 30 years apart, a youthful attempt and its masterful 'fair copy'.

Just 15 years separate Dvorák’s piano trios and all four were written before his 50th birthday.The early trios reflect his rediscovery of Czech folk music after emerging from his self-confessed Wagnerian ‘mad period.’ The grand F minor trio reflects Dvorák’s deep search for harmony between his German and Slavic passions, while the Dumky trio displays a lively, free and beautiful understanding of the Czech spirit. For over 20 years, Guarneri Trio Prague has been a tireless proponent of the Slavic tradition.