Various Composers - History of the Russian Piano Trio, Vol. 1 (The Brahms Trio)

Information

• Alexander Alyabyev - Piano Trio in E flat major
• Mikhail Glinka - Trio pathétique in D minor (arr. Jan Hřímalý)
• Anton Rubinstein - Piano Trio No. 2 in G minor, Op. 15 No. 2

The Brahms Trio

    Nikolai Sachenko, violin

    Kirill Rodin, cello

    Natalia Rubinstein, piano

Date: 2020

Label: Naxos

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Review

In the year 2020, the Brahms Trio and Naxos made music lovers delighted by beginning their ambitious project, the ‘History of the Russian Piano Trio‘, which qualifies for not only being exclusive, but also scientifically significant. Both well-known masterpieces and works that are unfamiliar to the majority of listeners will be featured in this collection, embracing at least two centuries. Albums of works by Paul Pabst, Cesar Cui, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Arensky, Sergei Taneyev, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and world premieres of piano trios by Vladimir Dyck, Konstantin Sternberg, and Sergei Youferov are planned to be released soon.

Turning to some forgotten or even completely unknown Russian music, the performers have taken on the noble task of rediscovering many composers who were undeservedly regarded as ‘second-rate’, and of promoting their works in Russia and abroad.

The anthology opens with an album of trios by Alexander Alyabiev, Mikhail Glinka, and Anton Rubinstein. These works were written during the first half of the 19th century, a very tense period in Russian history, filled with the tortuous search of a national musical language, the first collisions between ’Westernizers’ and ’Slavophiles’, and the intense struggle between aesthetic trends.

Despite the fact that, for the musicians of the Brahms Trio, Glinka’s and Alyabiev’s time is a period of unequivocal dominance of Romanticism, they do not unite the styles of these composers, and their approach to Alyabiev’s Trio in A Minor is so extraordinary that one is reminded of Goethe’s famous quote: ‘Boldness has genius, power and magic in it’. Perhaps that’s what this music so desperately needed—to prove how exciting it can sound nowadays. Rejecting the usual clichés and attempts to treat Alyabiev as a faithful follower of the Viennese classics, the performers discover in this work hitherto unknown colouristic possibilities and unexpected sound effects.

In contrast to Alyabiev, Glinka who chose an intimate, sincere tone in his Trio Pathétique sounds sometimes, in the interpretation by the Brahms Trio,—Field-like poetic, sometimes ardent like Schumann, while the piano part—Natalia Rubinstein—shines with the forgotten art of jeu perlé.

In this company of ‘hearts of fire’, the rebellious, frenetic, almost ‘Brahmsian’ Rubinstein lives and breathes quite organically. The appearance of his Trio in G Minor Op. 15 on this album seems natural, however, recognition of his artistic legacy by contemporaries and descendants is not so certain. Despite his fame as an educator and founder of the Conservatory, the composer, who joined neither the Balakirevians nor the Wagnerians, was neither understood nor truly appreciated. That is why a fresh look at his music by such great artists as Kirill Rodin, Nikolai Sachenko, and Natalia Rubinstein enables us to sense his immense potential and may be the beginning of a new performing tradition.

This compact disc is an unquestionable creative success, and one would like to celebrate it and wish a successful continuation of this anthology of the Russian Piano Trio, perhaps the most exquisite genre of chamber music.

-- Margarita Bukrinskaya

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Alexander Alyabyev (15 August 1787 – 6 March 1851) was a Russian composer known as one of the fathers of the Russian art song. He wrote seven operas, twenty musical comedies, a symphony, three string quartets, more than 200 songs, and many other pieces. Alyabyev's most famous work is The Nightingale (Соловей), a song based on a poem by Anton Delvig. It has entered Russian consciousness as akin to a folk song. The song became widely known after having been introduced by Pauline Viardot. Mikhail Glinka and Mily Balakirev wrote piano variations based on it. Franz Liszt also wrote a transcription.

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Mikhail Glinka (1 June 1804 – 15 February 1857) was the first Russian composer to win international recognition and founder of the Russian nationalist school. His music blended Russian folk melodies with Western classical forms, helping to define a distinctive Russian national style. Glinka's most notable works include the operas A Life for the Tsar (1836) and Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842), which influenced generations of Russian composers, notably the members of "The Five". His compositions also include orchestral pieces such as the overture Jota Aragonesa and the symphonic poem Kamarinskaya.

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Anton Rubinstein (28 November 1829 – 20 November 1894) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor. As a virtuoso pianist, Rubinstein ranks among the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos. He toured internationally, gaining fame for his technical prowess. Rubinstein is best known for founding the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1862, which was the first of its kind in Russia and played a crucial role in the development of Russian classical music education. His compositions include symphonic works, operas, chamber music, and piano pieces, blending Russian national elements with European classical traditions.

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The Brahms Trio is one of the leading chamber ensembles of Russia, a piano trio that unites violinist Nikolai Sachenko – Gold Medal at the XI Tchaikovsky Competition, cellist Kirill Rodin – Gold Medal at the VIII Tchaikovsky Competition, and pianist Natalia Rubinstein – First Prize at the Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition. Founded in Moscow in 1988, the Brahms Trio has performed worldwide and has recorded much of Russian piano trio repertoire. The Trio made a contribution to enlarging the chamber repertoire by rediscovering unknown piano trios of Russian composers of the late-19th and early-20th century.

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