Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Piano Trio No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 65, B. 130
Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, B. 166 ‘Dumky’
Trio Orelon
rec. 2024, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Studio 2, Munich, Germany
cpo 5556882 [73]

Dvořák’s Third and Fourth Piano Trios will be very high up the list of the most significant works of the genre for many listeners. I flip-flop between which of the two is my favourite. Listening for the first time to this excellent new recording from Trio Orelon, I was convinced that here, definitively, was a performance of the Third Trio which had once and for all secured its superiority as the greater composition in my mind. But then I heard their performance of the ‘Dumky’.

The works are very different of course. The Third has undoubted Brahmsian influences. Indeed, Brahms’s publisher, Fritz Simrock, had sent Dvořák a score of the older composer’s Piano Trio in C Major, Op.87, shortly before Dvořák began work on the Third. Trio Orelon plays up the Brahmsian gravitas, and also parses Dvořák’s more declarative writing exquisitely. I’m thinking for example, of their taut, unison string playing at the start of the work which instantly brings to mind another Brahms composition, the Piano Quintet, also in F minor. Their playing has a striking limpidity to it as well: listen to the way they play the canonic passages in the development section of the same movement, with focus and a perfect sense of line. Their account of the Scherzo brings out the folk elements beautifully, led by Marco Sanna’s warmly idiomatic piano playing. The slow movement is hauntingly realised with Arnau Rovira i Bascompte’s cello articulating the opening theme with a touching straightforwardness. The Finale exudes panache, with the Trio revelling in Dvořák’s furiant rhythms while maintaining an irresistible forward momentum.

One is so instantly swept up in the music, it’s sometimes salutary to remember what a daring formal experiment the ‘Dumky’ trio is—six beautifully shaped miniatures, all dance-like, all wonderfully contrasted. Trio Orelon inhabits each shift of mood, colour, and style with both grace and passion. After the highly dramatic, cello-led opening of the first movement, Judith Stapf’s violin gives just the right amount of maestoso and a striking dignity to the simple first theme, leading the way for the other instruments to join and delight us with the mini variations Dvořák employs. In the next two similarly structured movements, we encounter more examples of how Trio Orelon can dazzle with their quicksilver turns of phrase and mood. The melancholic fourth movement’s slow march works really well in this performance, entirely involving but unsentimental. The scherzo fifth has a sparkle and glitter that feels playful yet apt, and I loved the way the finale’s concluding dance almost acquires a raucousness but doesn’t quite. Instead, the latent nobility that underlies much of the work is allowed to surface.

Two first-rate performances, then. I still don’t know which work I prefer ultimately, but after listening to this disc, that is a happy admission. Trio Orelon, founded in 2019 in Cologne, has been very active on the concert platform; however, they have made just two previous recordings to my knowledge. Based on this recital, I would line them up to record as much of the repertoire as possible. How about the first two Dvořák trios for a start?

Dominic Hartley   

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