20th and 21st century piano trios

[Guido]

oops. I am embarrassed 

[Maciek]

If it makes you feel any better, I just realized I left out my absolute favorite modern Piano Trio: Beginning by Karin Rehnqvist!

[Guido]

If it makes you feel any better, I just realized I left out my absolute favorite modern Piano Trio: Beginning by Karin Rehnqvist!

Might this and the Lerchenmusik be found in the same place as the Holgreen?

[Maciek]

They will be before you know it...

In the meantime, I've remembered another absolute favorite - again, by a woman composer. It's a piece of heart-rending beauty, written after the composer's little daughter died: Hanna Kulenty's Lullaby
Really, a piece I absolutely love - just haven't listened to in a long while, which is why I forgot all about it.

(And it is "there" already. )

[Guido]

You're a brilliant man!

P.S. do you mean cradle song, rather than lullaby?

[Maciek]

Why, thank you.

Yes, I must have mixed it up with one of the Panufnik pieces that I do like. And, anyway, the Polish title is "Kołysanka" - the standard translation of that would be Lullaby. But I'm not sure which title is the original - Kulenty is performed more often abroad than over here.

[bwv 1080]

The piano trio does seem to have become less popular than either the Piano Quintet or Violin or Cello sonatas.  I could not even think of one later than the Ravel - which in my limited scope is the greatest of the bunch.

[Guido]

The piano trio does seem to have become less popular than either the Piano Quintet or Violin or Cello sonatas.  I could not even think of one later than the Ravel - which in my limited scope is the greatest of the bunch.

I strongly recommend Bridge no.2, Shostakovich no.2, Ives (get Ma, Kalish, Lefkowitz on Sony - required listening, and head and shoulders above the competition), Faure, all of which were written after the Ravel (well, the Ives was written before but revised a final time in 1915). These, along with the Ravel are some of my favourite chamber works in any genre.

[The new erato]

Anybody with knowledge and recommendations on the Frank Martin trio? Martin is a composer I would like to have complete, and I have missed this work.

[Guido]

Haven't heard the Martin trio, though would certainly be interested too - a very fine composer in deed.

Just wanted to add a few names to the list. First Bernstein's youthful piano trio composed when he was 19. It's a serious work in the same vein as the masterful clarinet sonata of just a few years later. His youth shows, but it's a really lovely work and a great piece of juvenilia. The second is Ireland's Phantasie trio - a really beautiful work and maybe my favourite I have heard of his - I've never heard his work sound so dynamic and powerful. But perhaps best of all are Bush's unfortunately titled 3 concert studies - fantastic work - very imaginitive, characterful and original. The first is a moto perpetuo that is likely fantastically difficult to play - the cello and violin are constantly in octaves playing very fast - a nightmare to keep in tune, but it makes for a great effect. The second movement is a gorgeous nocturne that just sticks in the mind, and the third a folksy Bulgarian inspired movement. I can't recommend these enough.

Another one I want to hear is Goldschmidt's piano trio - once available but now sadly out of print. I recently realised that I had every recorded work of Goldschmidt apart from this one. So if anyone has this piece...

[snyprrr]

hi, I'm new here, and this will be my first post
i was looking through the scroll of recent posts, and this one actually sounded like yer having a discussion. may i?

PIANO TRIOS:

i'm looking over my notes...
i think i have closed the book on piano trios. it does seem to be an orchestration that hasn't translated beyond the death of western music via boulez, stockhausen, etc...
that said, when i was looking for the hidden masterpieces, this is what i found.

1) HAYDN piano trios/ Beaux Arts Trio on Philips

need i say anything?
moving right along...

2) for me, the classic piano trio ends with the MARTINU 2-3 of 1950. i have the angell trio on asv.
and of course THE 20th cent trio...the shostakovich. trio no2

now here's the scoop...did you ever notice all the major 20th cent. composers who DIDN'T write a trio? let it sink in. i mean, POULENC didn't even write one! (not to mention no string quartet). hindemith, prokofiew, the viennese school...really, you have martinu and villa lobos as the two standouts, composers whose styles veer toward the melodious classical/romantic tradition.
NOW PLEASE BEAR WITH ME...

i would include the FAURE trio as the intermediate...THE romantic/impressionistic trio, as opposed the martinu classical/mozart approach.
there's a cd on largo with dsch no1, taillfaire, roslavets, milhaud! also a great record

3) NOW....my candidate for greatest trio EVER....goes to the BRIDGE trio no2. (i've never got beyond the hyperion recording)

bartok? no
schenberg? no
berg? no
webern? no
hindemith? no
the french?...well?

is there a greater hyper romantic statement for the medium? this, and bridge's cello sonata...


(btw-did anyone mention taneyev? as a brahmsian choice) clarke? vox cd of women composers? fanny?

i do recall noticing the background status of piano trios in general...maybe the restrictive instrumentaion, but i need to know if there is a greater human statement for the medium up until 1950.

NOW...SPECIAL MENTION GOES TO...the MALIPIERO "sonata a tre" (1826-7)...only heard on a dischi recordi disc...reminds me of the primalness of the bloch piano quintet no1.

ghedini? gerhard?
how about special mention to schoenberg's fantasy for violin with piano obbligato? haha

4) i noticed that most of the 20th cent. trios were coming from america....BLOCH, IVES, COWELL, COPLAND....maybe they took over the french mantle.

music and arts has a great series of usa trios including HARRISON, SHIFRIN, HELPS, POWELL, HARBISON, IMBRIE, WUORINEN...all starting in the fifties...which is where i think we see the birth and death of the "serial trio". since schoenberg DIDN'T write one....it seems that EVERY academic american composer felt the need to fill up that which was lacking, haha...jus kidding... but i think what i noticed was, after the martinu trios of 1950..tonal and diamond like...maybe for a moment it seemed as if the piano trio might be a great way to express the crystalline sounds of the new serial music.

i think maybe the restricted orchestration ate itself up, however, to the point that most neo classical to serial trios start all sounding alike to me. a little plink plonk, and like furious vehemence, a little tone row....but maybe all ending up sounding baroque, like schoenberg's piano concerto...almost creepy in that what worked so well for haydn starts sounding....dreary and serially anonymous.  one foot in this world, one in the next, but fitting in neither, maybe?

didn't international serialism infect EVERYTHING by 1959-62?

NOW....my favorite trio from this new era goes to....THE COPLANT PIANO QUARTET!!!!!!! yes....do you understand my point? what do you think? not to mention copland's nonet as best string quartet!!, haha

also in this category i will include the DENISOV TRIO (1971?) but i'm trying to think of the "classic" 60's trio...and nothing comes to mind. any help here?

even the 70's are a blur....can we just pretend that a piano trio hasn't been written in 30 years? and we wake up out of a coma?

the first thing that comes to my mind is RIHM'S FREMNDE SCENZEN (sic)...50 minutes of brutal, expressionistic, spastic early mature rihm from the late 70's. any comments?

the sciarrino......the kagel from the mid eighties.....anyone else?

and then i'm thinking of the FELDMAN PIANO TRIO!!!! did anyone mention this? from 1981??? i mean, as far as i'm concerned, feldman just about kills anything he comes in contact with (in a good way, i mean), so, just as i consider for samuel beckett the death of chamber music, so too, why not?, this trio be the very last statement? where are you going to take "THE PIANO TRIO", those three instruments, any further? how about feldman's duration 4 for violin, cello, and marimba (i think) synthesizer and midi strings? gulp!

i remember thinking i was going to uncover a new world masterpiece in lou harrison's piano trio....promising to be a big 40 min. statement...this was going to be my last seach and rescue for the piano trio, but...it wasn't quite what i had imagined (something like his big romantic statements of the late 40's and mid 80's)....so....was there still room in my imagination for an heir to the frank bridge trio? maybe....

so i just finished listening to the bridge trio no2 as i was writing....reflecting on the fate of the piano trio.....ahhhh, smoking jacket please.....

i'm picturing the three instruments in space.....piano....violin.....cello.....

(no, xenakis didn't...but i can picture it)

how do you put new wine into old casks?

is there reallly anything that hasn't been said in this medium. spectral? electronic?

i'm thinking now of how exciting it would be to hear a BIG hour long,,,fully inclusive trio....a "last word", but then i think:

HAYDN/SCHUBERT/DVORAK ETC...

BRIDGE NO2
MARTINU/SHOSTAKOVICH
COPLAND PIANO QUARTET

RIHM
FELDMAN
SCIARRINO

where do we go from here
now that all of the children have grown up?

[snyprrr]

hi, I'm new here, and this will be my first post
i

where do we go from here
now that all of the children have grown up?

Haha, the beginning and and ending of my first ever GMG Post! oy,...vklempt

[The new erato]

Haha, the beginning and and ending of my first ever GMG Post!

I wonder if anybody ever read the inbetween stuff?

[listener]

a few more listings, FYI
Roussel  in E^b  1902/1927
Villa-Lobos 1 - c.1911,  2 - c.1915     3- c.1918
Milhaud  op.428   1968
Honegger  1914    one mvt only
Copland   Vitebsk  (sound of the shofar)
Castelnuovo-Tedesco  1 op. 89  1928,   2 op.143   1932
Arnold   op. 54     Rubbra op. 68 
and I've not checked the dates for  Reger op.102, Ysaÿe op. 29  Casella op. 62
My favourite is probably the Ives since I am very familiar with the quoted hymn-tunes.

[Conor71]

Although they are already mentioned I think Shostakovich 2 Piano Trios are excellent and I also really enjoy Villa-Lobos 3 Trios as well .

[snyprrr]

I wonder if anybody ever read the inbetween stuff?

That was a particularly long one, eh?

ahhh,...poor snyprrr, haha

[mjwal]

There is a piano trio (1998) based on a theme by Marais by Philippe Hersant which I am curious about, since i have liked some of his other music. Anybody know it?
York Höller's piano trio Tagträume is a richly layered late 20th century masterpiece.
Georg Katzer's Divertissement à trois (oboe, cello, piano) is, like all his work, both witty, deranging and suggestive.
I have just realised that Maxwell Davies' 2002 piano trio Voyage to Fair Isle is on CD (w/Beethoven) and available from Amazon marketplace for 3€, so have ordered post-haste.
The piano trio seems to be flourishing!

[snyprrr]

There is a piano trio (1998) based on a theme by Marais by Philippe Hersant which I am curious about, since i have liked some of his other music. Anybody know it?
York Höller's piano trio Tagträume is a richly layered late 20th century masterpiece.
Georg Katzer's Divertissement à trois (oboe, cello, piano) is, like all his work, both witty, deranging and suggestive.
I have just realised that Maxwell Davies' 2002 piano trio Voyage to Fair Isle is on CD (w/Beethoven) and available from Amazon marketplace for 3€, so have ordered post-haste.
The piano trio seems to be flourishing!

Do you have the Katzer on Berlin, with Denisov and Yun,... or the other release on Berlin? The one with Den+Yun is a great unknown cd for oboe 'trios'. The Denisov, particularly, with harpsichord, is a 30min E.APoe workout. Very creepy!

[Scarpia]

These pieces by Casella are called Trio Sonatas, but have standard Piano Trio configuration.

[mjwal]

I have the one with D & Y, Snyprrr, a fun CD as you say. I only mentioned it really to insinuate Georg Katzer into people's minds, though I am more interested in his work with tape and electronics (check out his Imaginäre Dialoge, for example, or diverse pieces on various CDs of the big Deutscher Musikrat 1950-2000 collection on RCA).
My main concern was to recommend the Höller trio.