Martinu: Piano Trio No. 1 'Cinq pièces brèves', H. 193

Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů excelled in chamber music and made a substantial contribution to the piano trio repertoire of the twentieth century, his keen ear for balance and sonority finding here a perfect medium for his music. Trio No. 1, Cinq pièces brèves, written in an appealing and virtuosic neo-classical style in Paris in 1930, was admired by Stravinsky. Trios Nos. 2 and 3, composed in America in 1951, are more ambitious in scope and notable for their rhythmic verve and unpredictability, ingratiating themes and elegiac slow movements.

The Florestan Trio is one of Britian’s best-loved chamber groups, and its many Hyperion recordings are routinely acclaimed as benchmark versions of the repertoire. After delighting listeners and critics with two discs of Dvorák, the ensemble now further explores the Czech piano trio repertoire.

The three works on this CD cover the complete span of what is usually thought of as the Czech school of composition. Smetana, regarded as the founding father, first showed the way to bring traditional dance and song into the mainstream of European composition, forging a national style. Eben, who died in 2007, was one of the most distinguished composers who carried this line to the present day. But, as these three contrasting pieces demonstrate, Czech composers were subject to very different kinds of influence at different times. Smetana’s Piano Trio, an early work, shows more influence from the mainstream giants of the time—particularly Schumann and Liszt—than it does from any ‘folk’ elements. By the time Martinuo wrote his first Piano Trio, he was immersed in the exciting cosmopolitan culture of twentieth-century Paris. And Petr Eben took the neoclassicism of Martinuo and his contemporaries, and developed his own individual approach to it.

Martinu wrote no less than ten scores for trio with keyboard, including four in the classic formation of piano, violin and cello, spread out between 1930 and 1951.The charming Bergerettes make up a modest pastorale in the spirit of the cantata Kytice.Trio No. 2 pays homage to Fauré, whereas the last Trio prefigures the expressive power of the Fantaisies symphoniques (Symphony No.6), sketched out at the beginning of May 1951 in New York. The Kinsky Trio is heir to the famed Czech tradition, from the Suk Trio and Vlach Quartet to the Guarneri Trio, Kocian and Pražák quartets…