Emánuel Moór (1863–1931)
Complete Piano Trios
Trio in D major, op. 74
Trio in C major, op. 81
Trio in B flat major, op. 89
Storioni Trio
rec. 2023, Konzertsaal der Kulturstiftung Marienmünster, Germany
Reviewed as lossless download
cpo 5556292 [83]

This is the first music that I’ve knowingly heard of the Hungarian-born German-speaking Emánuel Moór. He was taught by Robert Volkmann and Anton Bruckner among others, but it is from Brahms, who befriended Moór, where one hears the strongest influences. In the piano trio genre, can there be a better source of influence?

While cpo does not claim it, these are, to the best of my knowledge, the first recordings of all three trios, which I find extraordinary. They are all eminently enjoyable and far more interesting than any number of trios with several (or numerous) recordings. The booklet does not indicate when they were written, and the opus numbers aren’t helpful as it would seem that his works were not necessarily published in order of composition. What is known is that Moór gave up composition after World War I and turned his attention to the invention of musical instruments, including a piano with two keyboards – the Duplex-Coupler – which did have a brief, and unsuccessful, commercial production run.

My guess is that the three works were written in opus number order, but over a wider span of time than suggested by their numbers. The D major sounds very much in the thrall of Brahms, but lacking in melodic inspiration. I have seen it numbered as op. 74a with op. 74 as a violin sonata, and there is a definite sense that the cello has a very much subsidiary role, so it may be that what we hear here is an arrangement of the original sonata. With the C major, we are still in the soundworld of Brahms, but now Moór’s own voice is emerging. The melodies are more interesting and the instrumental voices more evenly allocated. The slow movement is quite lovely. The trio’s main flaw is that the three movements – all longer than 7 minutes – run out of steam somewhat. The B flat major trio is a considerable advance in quality, particularly the first three movements which are concise and full of melodic and rhythmic interest. In the Scherzo, I had a strong sense of the equivalent movement from Fauré’s first Piano Quartet. Only the finale lets down the side somewhat, falling back into the over-extended habit, and relying too much on a galumphing piano part.

The Storioni Trio have been together for thirty years, and have gained a considerable and well-merited reputation. As evidenced by this recording, they are not afraid to delve into the world of the unsung, and while it has taken more than a century for these works to gain a recording, they have received very fine performances when their time did eventually come. The recording quality is fine, and the booklet notes are very good, which is not something that can always be said for this label.

The physical release is spread across two CDs – clearly cpo still sticks to the old Red Book 80 minute standard when there are many single discs with longer runtimes than 83 minutes – but it is priced as a single disc. However, the download is showing on Presto Classical at double the price of the CDs – again, go figure.

David Barker

Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free