Passion
Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960)
Serenade, Op. 10 (1904)
Jean Françaix (1912-1997)
String Trio (1933)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Chaconne, BWV 2004 (ca. 1720, arr. von Tòszeghi)
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
String Trio, JS 210 (1894)
George Enescu (1881-1955)
Aubade (1899)
Leipzig String Trio
rec. 2022, Evangelische Erlöserkirche Harleshausen
Ars Produktion ARS38630 [58]
The string trio, as an ensemble, was popular in the Classical period, but, after Beethoven, it pretty much lay dormant until the twentieth century. The novel program idea is to gather four of those latter-day scores in various styles, framing a transcription of Bach’s famous Chaconne.
The Chaconne, in fact, is the jewel of the program – unexpectedly because, as a tour de force for solo violin, it could expect to lose something in the translation, or transcription (I know the piece from Andrés Segovia’s solo guitar performance). Here, however, the taut, alert opening chords command the listener’s attention, and the performance never lets go. The players, and the arrangement, dexterously swap off chords and counterpoint to generate a wonderful textural variety; and such details as the pulsing triplets just after 9:20 are allowed just the right amount of breadth. First-class work here.
The same persuasive, committed musicianship carries through the final two items. I’d not known that Sibelius had written for string trio; the present score is the completed Lento of a planned larger work. The opening sustained chords – each quietly attacked, with perfectly matched crescendos – are at once yielding and tough. A few scratchy bowings intrude into an impassioned passage highlighting the cello, but the final cadential chords bring repose. Enescu’s five-minute Aubade didn’t sound much like dawn to me at all: its lilt and agogics suggest, incongruously, a Viennese waltz (though I realize that Hungary and Austria jointly ruled the Empire).
The front of the program is more variable. In Dohnányi’s five-movement Serenade, more angular than the title might suggest, the Leipzigers are unusually assertive, projecting a “full out,” saturated tone throughout – even in the Tema con variazioni’s ambivalent opening chorale. Surprisingly, although everyone seems to be functioning at maximum, balances are excellent – the parts are never competing or interfering with each other – and there’s plenty of variety.
Despite the potential for aural clutter, I prefer that style to the players’ gingerly Françaix. This composer writes with a lighter touch – a more benign Poulenc or Ibert – but that surely doesn’t require such a thinner tone, which also makes for tentative-sounding intonation in the calmer passages. Despite the buoyancy in the first two movements and the closing Rondo’s cheerful start, the whiny, bodiless sounds simply grow wearisome.
The booklet notes are bilingual – just German and English – which might seem to exclude a lot of potential enthusiasts, but I assume Ars Production knows its potential audience.
Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog
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