Nikolay Roslavets (1881-1944)
Piano Trio No.4 (1927)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Piano Trio No.1 in C Minor Op.8 (1923)
Piano Trio No.2 in E Minor Op.67 (1944)
The Brahms Trio
rec. 2017-2024, Great Hall, Moscow Conservatory, Moscow, Russia
History of the Russian Piano Trio: 10. Soviet Avant-garde
Naxos 8.574691 [80]

The piano trio is a well-established medium in Russia: this is the tenth volume in a series called History of the Russian Piano Trio. It is also the last volume, perhaps unsurprisigly since the players are a Russian team, recorded in Russia most recently in 2024 – rather amazing, considering the political situation. The series has included well-known works, such as the trios by Tchaikovsky, Arensky and Rachmaninov, and works which will be completely unfamiliar to most listeners. This disc is a case in point, since it includes a trio by Nikolay Roslavets and both Shostakovich works, of which the second is among the best-known of all twentieth century piano trios.

Roslavets was one of the Russian futurists, a group of composers who flourished briefly in the 1920s. Others known to me are Alexander Mosolov, Sergei Protopopov and Samuel Feinberg. They shared a common debt to Scriabin, and were interested in modernist composers including Bartók, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. In the 1930s, they were ruthlessly suppressed by the authorities for writing music which was not in keeping with the official aesthetic. Their story is a melancholy parallel to that of the Jewish composers during the Nazi period, except that the Russian composers were by and large not murdered. A few escaped into exile, but otherwise they were disgraced, silenced or made to conform. In recent years, their music has begun to be rediscovered.

Roslavets, successful in the 1920s, held a number of official positions. By the end of the decade, he fell out of favour and moved to Tashkent, but eventually returned to Moscow. He had a severe stroke in 1939, and another in 1944 which killed him. His grave was destroyed. Many of his works have been lost, though enough remains to show that he was a significant composer. The piano trios are a case in point. He wrote five, but the first and fifth have been lost.

Here we have the fourth trio, and very impressive it turns out to be. It is a big work, over forty minutes, in four movements. The idiom is chromatic, verging on expressionist. The closest comparison I can make is with Berg, though Roslavets has more interest in driving rhythms than Berg usually shows. The first movement has a nervous, scurrying opening, an expressive, highly chromatic second subject, and an elaborate, intricate development. The second movement is a vigorous dancing scherzo in a manner close to Prokofiev. The slow movement is dark and sombre, but the atmosphere lightens a little in the middle. The finale starts with great vigour and goes through a range of moods with a great sense of propulsion. The work is brilliantly and idiomatically written for the players, and is well integrated. It is a real discovery.

I can be briefer about the two Shostakovich works since they are so much better known. The first trio is a single-movement student work, less than twelve minutes, which the composer rather disdained in his later years. Still, he gave it an opus number, and it is quite frequently performed. It is much more cheerful than Shostakovich’s later serious works tended to be, full of ideas and not particularly well integrated.

The second trio is deservedly very well known. It has four movements and lasts just under half an hour. It opens with a slow fugato, with the cello playing entirely in harmonics. There follows a shift to a faster tempo and classical-style sonata movement. The second movement, a scherzo, starts bracingly but becomes obsessive, even tragic. The third movement is a passacaglia, with the repeated theme on the piano and melodies on the two string instruments. The finale is sometimes known as the Dance of Death. It introduces melodies in the Jewish klezmer style, including one which also appears in the eighth string quartet. This movement has made the trio famous: it is powerful and tragic, with a fierce driving rhythm.

The performances here are in that forthright Russian manner which we know from, for example, Svetlanov’s recordings of orchestral music. The recording is good.

I particularly enjoyed getting to know Roslavets’s masterpiece. I should point out that there was a 2009 recording of the three surviving Roslavets piano trios by Trio Fontaney on Teldec, and other isolated recordings. There are many recordings of Shostakovich’s second trio and some of the first. They are not always coupled together: a popular coupling is the second trio and the piano quintet. This version will do very well if the programme is found suitable.

Stephen Barber

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