Chamber Music: May 2008 Archives

Cécile Chaminade
(1857-1944)

Trio #1 in G minor, Op. 11 (1881)
Trio #2 in A minor, Op. 34 (1887)
Ritournelle (arr. Marcus)
Sérénade, Op. 29 (arr. Cottin/Marcus)
Pastorale Enfante, Op. 12 (arr. Marcus)
Serenade Espagñole (arr. Kreisler)

Tzigane Piano Trio
Academy Sound & Vision CDDCA965 57:28

Chaminade, as a young girl, was called "a little Mozart" by George Bizet. She was most known for her popular "salon and parlor" pieces which she performed and published. She wrote over 400 compositions, among them a ballet, an opera, songs, concerti, and chamber music, but she was forgotten in her own lifetime, and belittled by contemporary critics because she was a woman, and because she didn't take part in the French musical revolution of the times. A complete catalog of her works was not made until 1988! At last we can enjoy her charming music on CD and much of it is accessible to amateur music-makers.

This CD has a little sampling of her songs (Pastorale Enfantine) and piano pieces, both presented here in arrangements, but the chamber music is the real meat of the recording. Chaminade, in her trios, wrote deceptively simple melodies and close harmonies for the strings while her piano parts sparkle with light scale passages and arpeggios and overall rhythmic interest. The third movement of the first Piano Trio has captured me! I can listen to it over and over. It is reminiscent of the Arensky First Piano Trio, second movement, another ear-worm with amazing sense of movement in the piano part! Chaminade's overall compositional style also evokes another elegant and charming work: the first Piano Trio of Camille Saint-Saëns.

If you enjoy these works, you will no doubt enjoy the numerous recordings of Chaminade's piano works, and I can also highly recommend the Deutsche Grammophon release of Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg presenting Chaminade's songs, three pieces for violin and piano and three two-piano works (DGG 471331-2)

[ Available on CD: Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ]

[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Julius Röntgen
(1855-1932)

Quintet for Piano & Strings Op. 100 (1927)
Trio for Clarinet, Viola & Piano (1921)
Sonata for Viola & Piano in C Minor (1924)
Sextet in G Major (1931)

ARC Ensemble
Artists of the Royal Conservatory (Canada)
RCA Red Seal 88697-15837-2 73:12

Ask a string player to free-associate on the word "octet" and you will hear "Mendelssohn". Ask a string player about the word "sextet" and you will most likely evoke the name "Brahms". Julius Röntgen's string sextet is a glorious addition to the repertoire. Although it was written in 1931, it is absolutely in the tradition and style of Brahms as are the other fine chamber works on this CD. They are all performed with excellence by the ARC ensemble, Artists of the Royal Conservatory. ARC is led by Simon Wynberg and is made up of faculty members of the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

The title "Right Through The Bone" was inspired by Edvard Grieg's remark about his good friend Julius Röntgen and his distant relative, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Wilhelm Röntgen's x-rays only went up to the bone and stopped. But Julius Röntgen's music went right through the bone and directly to the heart!

[ Available on CD: Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ]

[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com - Donemus ]

Jean Cras
(1879-1932)

Quintet for Piano and Strings (1922)
String Quartet (1909)

Alain Jacquon, piano
Quartet Louvigny
Timpani 1C1066 74:33

Jean Cras was an officer in the French Navy, and an extremely talented musical autodidact. He was tutored for a short but intensive period by Henri Duparc, and he spoke fluently the language of Debussy, Ravel, and the Impressionists.

Cras' Quintet for piano and strings was planned as a musical shipboard adventure. The four movements are marked "Clear and Joyful, Calm and Peaceful, Alert and Decisive, Passionate and Proud" and there are program notes to go along with them. As you listen, you can hear the influence of his native Brittany's sea shanties, the hints of the foreign ports of call, the exotic scales of Arabic and Asian music, and in the last movement – about three and a half minutes into the movement) – you can hear an imitation of a Chinese stringed instrument (erhu). All are woven seamlessly into the fabric of the music.

Ordinarily I don't like having "programs" imposed upon my listening, but there is enough good music here for you to write your own adventure. The constant motion is IN the music; the swells of sound could really be the sea!

There is another composition of Cras' that will thrill those who hunger for more ocean voyages: His Ship's Log (Journal de bard) can be found on Timpani 2C2037 in an excellent 2CD set of Cras' orchestral music. However I found that with just a piano and four strings Cras could provide me with the emotions and colors of my own cruise on a luxury liner.

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Ferdinand Ries
(1784-1838)

Piano Trio in E Flat Major, Op. 2
Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 143

Mendelssohn Trio Berlin
cpo 777053-2 54:53

As with much of Ries' music, the influence of Beethoven is strong and in these two trios Mendelssohn also hovers. Nothing unusual here – just enjoyable, well-crafted music.

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Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ]

Bernhard Molique
(1801-1869)

String Quartet #1, Op. 18 #1
String Quartet #2, Op. 18 #2

Mannheim String Quartet
cpo 777149-2 58:29

Molique was this German composer's preferred French version of his name. Ludwig van Beethoven looms large over these quartets published in 1834. The first, like Beethoven's, is in F Major, Op 18 #1 which is probably no coincidence. The second, in A minor, is somewhat darker and has some of the character of a Felix Mendelssohn quartet.

[ Available on CD: Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ]