Schubert / Trio Alba - Trio D 929 100 / Notturno D 897 - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

Paul Badura-Skoda, piano, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, violin and Boris Pergamenschikow, violoncello are among the most important musicians of the second half of the 20th century. A testimony to their rare collaboration can be found in this hitherto unpublished recording, which presents the three exceptional artists with the piano trios by Franz Schubert. The Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, op. 99, D 898 is a studio recording from the Grand Hall of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation in Vienna from 1984, the second trio in E-flat major, op. 100, D 929 was made during the Salzburg Festival in 1981 as a concert recording. These recordings provide a stunning experiencing of the superb individual class as well as chamber musical abilities of three of the greatest musicians of musical history.

Dmitri Shostakovich was only 17 years old when he completed his piano studies in Petrograd. In the same year he published his first piano trio, nonetheless already as Opus 8. The Trio Alba juxtaposes this youthful work with the Trio Op. 67 from 1944, and with Bedrich Smetana's Piano Trio Op. 15 expands the worthwhile view of the chamber music of the Slavic cultural region. Smetana's music is Slavic the Furiant, a lively Bohemian dance, characterizes two of the three movements. The work has a sad background - Smetana's daughter died shortly before, only four years old. The trio is dedicated to her memory, lamenting phrases and groans express the pain. Wide soloistic passages convey the impression of great loneliness. And sonorous beauty. Shostakovich's Trio op. 67 also commemorates a deceased person; the composer's deep consternation over the sudden death of a friend is expressed not only in a sensitive letter to the widow. Like a heart-rending lament, the strings play fortissimo con sordino shortly before the end - a fascinating sound effect that goes through marrow and bone. The Trio Alba is unreservedly engaged in the depths of these states of the soul. And also the rapturousness of a young love, which permeates Shostakovich's first trio, finds adequate expression with the three Austrians.

SIMPLE TRUTHS is the latest effort from The Holmes Brothers that is a soulful journey through American Roots music blues, R&B and country. From raucous raodhouse rocks to heartbreaking ballads, the tracks include a handful of Holmes Brothers originals as well as stirring, Holmes-ified version of songs by Gillian Welch, Collective Soul, Hank Williams, Twones Van Zandt and Bob Marley.