Brahms: Piano Trios Nos. 1-3 (Complete)

New CD from BBC Music Magazine Award Winning Smetana Trio.

Following on from the recording of the complete trios of Antonin Dvořak (Supraphon), the renowned and critically acclaimed Smetana Trio have taken the logical step of recording a Johannes Brahms album of the same ilk. As a pianist, Brahms earned admiration back in his childhood and later on many occasions even premiered his own pieces. Almost four decades span the first trio Brahms wrote, at the age of twenty, and the last. Besides piano trios in the traditional configuration, he composed a trio for horn and a trio for clarinet. The sound of the horn, an instrument Brahms himself played, was reputedly loved by the composer’s mother and he wrote the horn trio as a response to her death. Brahms created the clarinet trio for the celebrated clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld, whom the composer esteemed immensely.

The Smetana Trio’s guests on the new recording are the outstanding clarinettist Ludmila Peterkova and the superlative horn player Přemysl Vojta, winner of the ARD Munich competition (2010) and holder of a Beethoven Ring. Brahms with the tenderness and engrossing romantic expressiveness of the Smetana Trio.

Recorded at the Martinek Studio, Prague, June 2011 (Trios Nos 2&3, Clarinet Trio) and June 2012 (Trio No. 1, Horn Trio).

Trio Testore, as part of its recording of the complete Brahms Piano Trios, presents both versions of the Trio in B major, Op. 8: the original version and the revised version which was made 35 years later and which, to a large extent, amounts to a new composition.

Whilst revising his first trio, Brahms also wrote another pair of new, contrasting trios. The musicians emphasise the richness of detail of these works at the same time, their vivid rendition, with a convincing choice of tempi, reveals the architecture and the “breadth” of the compositions. Together, these works provide an exemplary impression of Brahms’ development as a composer.

The Trio Testore was founded in 2000 by Franziska Pietsch (violin), Hans-Christian Schweiker (cello) and Hyun-Jung Kim-Schweiker (piano). The ensemble has made a name for itself nationally and internationally. For its 10th anniversary in 2011 the Trio Testore founded the annual chamber music festival Mai-Klassik.

The Eskar Trio have established themselves as one of Denmark’s leading chamber music ensembles and Cpo are proud to present their interpretation of Johann Brahms’s Piano Trios.

In addition to the three well-known trios is the Piano Trio in A major, a work whose authorship continues to be a matter of controversy. The anonymous score from a Bonn manuscript collection of the nineteenth century was discovered in 1924 (now extant), and it is thought to be a sole survivor from collection of piano trios the self-critical composer withheld from publication.

Brahms's trios are brought to life by Australia's premiere piano trio with the passion and emotional intensity so needed for these incredible works, performed with their usual technical assurance and understanding of the music.

This fine 2-CD set presents the complete trios of Brahms. The three Piano Trios date from the extremes of the composer’s life - from 1854 when he was about twenty years old until 1887 when he was fifty three. The Clarinet Trio was one of his very last works, with the marvellous Horn Trio being a middle period work.

The Beaux Arts Trio have recorded the Brahms Trios twice and this, their digital recording of the complete trios returns to the catalogue at mid-price.

“The playing is always highly vital and sensitive. There is a splendid, finely projected sense of line and the delicate, sensitive playing of Menahem Pressler is always a delight.” The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs