The Brahms Trio - History of the Russian 4 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Vienna was a magnet for musicians across Europe in the 18th century, and among the most successful and influential were composers from Bohemia. Credited with developing idiomatic piano performance in the city, Leopold Koželuch also wrote choral music of considerable individuality. Joseph der Menschheit Segen ('Joseph, Mankind's Blessing') is a powerful Masonic cantata that unusually includes Melodrama, where spoken text is followed by instrumental passages. The two sacred arias are masterful compositions and the Missa in C, though small in scale, is unusually lavish in it's scoring. Klage auf den Todt Marien Theresien ('On the Death of Maria Theresa') possesses a grave and subtle beauty. This new also features the Naxos debut of the Czech Boys Choir Boni Pueri. Founded in 1982, it has become one of Europe's most famous vocal ensembles and have given more than 3000 performances in Europe, North America and Asia.

The piano trio holds an important place in the history of Russian chamber music and to follow the development of the genre is to accompany the fascinating history of Russian music in the 19th century. It's beginnings can be found with Alexander Alyabiev, a student of John Field, whose unfinished but elegant and vivacious Piano Trio in E flat major is paired with the yearning Romanticism of the Piano Trio in A minor. Mikhail Glinka's Trio pathétique bears the inscription 'I have only known love through the sorrow it causes!', while Anton Rubinstein's elaborately acrobatic piano writing in his Piano Trio in G minor reminds us of his own virtuosity, and reveals his magnificent skills as a melodist.

This album concludes The Brahms Trio's five-volume survey of the piano trio in Russia with remarkable works by composers whose names have all but disappeared from the musical world's collective memory. Vladimir Dyck, a student of Widor at the Paris Conservatoire, took French nationality in 1910 but his life came to a tragic end when he and his family were arrested in 1943 and sent to Auschwitz. His Piano Trio, Op. 25 contrasts Russian soulfulness with the lightness and deft scoring he brought to his film compositions. Constantin von Sternberg's genial Op.104reflects his career as a virtuoso pianist, while Sergey Youferov's expansive and nostalgic Op.52is a farewell to the Russian 'Silver Age', a world about to be destroyed by revolution.