KORNGOLD; ZEMINSKY Piano Trios (Stefan Zweig Trio)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Alexander von Zemlinsky, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Ars Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 03/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ARS38264
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Piano Trio |
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Composer
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Composer Stefan Zweig Trio |
Trio for Clarinet/Viola, Cello and Piano |
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer Stefan Zweig Trio |
Author: Andrew Mellor
Is it best to power through with impetus and edge – as the Stefan Zweig Trio do here – or try for something more noble and mahogany, as the Beaux Arts Trio’s classic recording does? That’s a tricky one but this ensemble’s decision to take the former approach seems like a wise one. Others might have revealed a little more of the Scherzo’s burlesque qualities but the ensemble isn’t tempted to over-indulge those occasional glimpses of art nouveau curvature in the same movement that probably aren’t ripe enough for full exploitation. Some of the long-held violin lines of the Larghetto might have benefited from a little more tempering of vibrato (both its intensity and the timing of when it kicks in, which seems pretty uniform) but that same intensity is a good fit for the pulsating finale.
While Korngold’s Trio tries to look forwards from 1910, Zemlinsky’s tries to look back from 1896. Zemlinsky set out to pay homage to Brahms but at least in his piece, originally a clarinet trio, he doesn’t overly check the flow of his compositional impulse, one reason this heaving performance feels that bit more right-on. If Brahms caused Zemlinsky problems, perhaps it was in the latter’s tendency to want to contain his density rather than spread it out. This is Zemlinsky no more fully fledged than its Korngold counterpart, but we do sense a composer starting to twist the kaleidoscope. It sounds, from their approach, like the Stefan Zweig Trio wish he’d twisted it even more.
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