Max Reger (1873-1916) was an astonishingly prolific composer, amassing a total of well over a thousand works in a short career. His earliest compositions were lieder and chamber works, and it was the latter genre that inspired Reger to compose his finest music. His mature output reflected both the Baroque revival and modernist tendencies, with two of the most lasting influences upon his style being Brahms and Bach. Reger has an unfair reputation for complexity and turgidity that by no means defines a large share of his oeuvre. Today his music is rarely played, yet in a 1922 letter Schoenberg described him as a genius, including Reger in the same breath with Wagner, Mahler, Strauss and Debussy. Reger’s Piano Trio in E minor is sometimes described as his ‘Second Piano Trio’ but is in fact the first he composed for the usual three instruments. The first movement is a large-scale extended sonata structure on a seminal E–F–D sharp–E motif that in the manner of Brahms binds not only the movement but the entire work. A spectral pizzicato scherzo in C minor follows, then a Largo sonata–rondo with a beautiful hymn-like theme. The Brahmsian finale includes examples of Reger’s beloved fugal writing, march-rhythms and a chorale-like theme. A propensity for full textures, exemplified in much of this trio, suggests the influence of the organ loft, where Reger was perhaps most at home. The three pieces Op.79d for violin and piano, dating from 1902/4, just a few years before the Piano Trio, reveal Reger the miniaturist, as do the two brief pieces for cello and piano Op.79e. Though relatively slight in the context of Reger’s output, these sets are greatly varied in mood and indicative of the expressive range that characterizes the composer’s musical output as a whole.

Brahms’s Trio op.114, originally conceived for clarinet (like the two Sonatas op.120), is presented here in its version with viola: ‘Like all Brahms’s works, this trio is a vocal, melodic piece. And the viola is perhaps the instrument of the string quartet that comes closest to the human voice’, says violist Miguel Da Silva. ‘This version with viola obliges me, as a cellist, to listen differently: our two stringed instruments must “breathe” together and match their articulation’, continues Xavier Phillips. These three works from late in Brahms’s career testify to his modernity: ‘Brahms was often considered a classical composer who was impervious to modernity, the guardian of a certain tradition’, says pianist François-Frédéric Guy, who agrees with Schoenberg that he was, on the contrary, highly innovative: ‘We have a fine example, in the trio, of the extraordinary modernity of his combinations of rhythm and timbre: he is a total innovator.'

This program contains compositions that have found their way into the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis without exception. Nevertheless, each of them - each in its own right - is an artistic reflection of other works by Johann Sebastian Bach or his work as a teacher. Against this background, the interpreters of this recording have also returned the sonatas BWV 1028 and 1029 to their original trio sonata instrumentation. Ana Ioana Oltean was born in Romania. Following initial musical instruction at the Music College and Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca Ana joined the class of Heidi Indermühle at the Academy of Arts in Berne, Switzerland. In 2002 she was awarded her soloist diploma as well as the Eduard Tschumi Prize. Ana completed her Master’s degree in Music Intermediation at the Academy of Music in Trossingen while developing her skills on the baroque flute. Kaspar Zehnder was born in Riggis-berg, Switzerland. He studied flute with Heidi Indermühle in Berne and later with Aurèle Nicolet in Paris, Siena and at the European Mozart Academy. Kaspar Zehnder is in great demand internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor. From 2004 until 2012 he was the musical director of the Zentrum Paul Klee in Berne. He is the principal conductor of the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra and of the Hradec Králové Phil-harmonic Orchestra. Vital Julian Frey was born in Geneva, Switzerland. In contrast to many conventional career paths in his field, Vi-tal began to focus on the harpsichord early on, at the age of eight. He studied with Robert Hill in Freiburg, Christophe Rousset in Paris, and with Christine Schornsheim in Munich, where he re-ceived the soloist diploma.

The Russian piano trio reached its apogee with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, dedicated to the memory of Nikolay Rubinstein. A monumental piece in the repertoire, it is cast in only two movements, and was played at Tchaikovsky’s own memorial concert two years after its composition. Paul Pabst’s Piano Trio in A major is less well known. Composed in memory of Nikolay Rubinstein’s brother, Anton, it is a work of exceptional virtuosity and flowing lyricism, with unpredictable harmonies, a delightful Intermezzo and a tour de force of a Finale.

The members of Trio Imàge stumbled upon this score by chance and were thrilled to incorporate it into their repertoire: “This early work of a mostly forgotten composer nevertheless features a series of astounding, imaginative ideas and innovations: this music is brimming with youthful emotion and lively virtuosity, along with interspersed elements of Vienna folklore and a vague presentiment of decades of terror looming on the horizon.” A current representative of the same tendency is the young accordionist, dancer, arranger, and composer Marek Dyakov, who, in his works, combines folklore elements with jazz harmonies and classical means of expression. Perperikoana belongs to Ancient Bulgarian Legends, a four-part cycle dedicated to Trio Imàge. The piece displays strong associations with the music of the Rhodope Mountains, home of the Perperikon, an ancient sacred rocky hill: the landscapes of that beautiful region, with their great variety, find their echo in the piece’s polyphonic structure. The title also contains a personal dedication to Ana, Dyakov’s wife.

Born in Hamburg in 1786, the son of a military bandsman, Friedrich Kuhlau showed early musical promise and took lessons with a student of CPE Bach. When Napoleon’s troops invaded Hamburg in 1810, the 24-year-old Kuhlau fled with his family to Copenhagen, and there he made his name as a pianist and composer to the royal court. Taking Danish citizenship in 1813, he worked in the vanguard of the country’s fast-moving cultural scene, enjoying huge success as a composer of operas and incidental music. Kuhlau was himself a flautist of modest accomplishment, but the popularity of salon culture in Denmark increased the demand for flute and piano music - which were both fashionable at the time - to such an extent that Kuhlau complained, in a letter to his publisher in 1829, about having too many commissions. While a flautist of modest accomplishment himself, Kuhlau wrote with unfailing craft, sympathy and imagination for the instrument and before their publication he submitted his new works for approval from the principal flautist of the Court Chapel’s orchestra. The seven trios recorded here display a surprising variety of texture and mood. Even the trio of Op.13 works from 1815 ranges from the Baroque manners of No.3’s Adagio to a much grander scale of expression in the slow introduction which opens the curtain on No.1 and on the set as a whole. There is a dashing, Mendelssohnian quality to both the melodies and the sunny disposition of the Op.86 set from 1827 which itself is set aside for a more intense, Beethovenian argument in the grand trio Op.90. In 2015 three Asian flautists founded the Flute East Trio at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

Dances were an important element in Schubert’s compositions. He favored the Ländler, triple time country dances – perfect material for Viennese middle-class tastes –and the Écossaise, supposedly Scottish, cast in duple time and performed with women and men facing each other. The 30 Minuets with Trios, of which ten are lost, sport especially captivating and varied Trios, while the two Écossaises from the German Dances, D.783 are vivacious examples of Schubert’s genial mastery of the genre.

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REVIEW:

With much of Franz Schubert’s highly prolific output of piano music already in the Naxos catalog, this new release offers four of his much lesser known works. Starting out in 1813, when he was just sixteen, with the 30 Minuets, the young man demonstrated his ability to fashion highly attractive music. They were all quite short, and with ten becoming lost in the years that followed, we have the remaining twenty, each Minuet containing a trio section. All are technically undemanding, the young Hungarian-born, and multiple prize-winner, Daniel Lebhardt, taking a straightforward and unadorned approach. Three years later Schubert added 8 Landler each of around half a minute, and like the Minuets are nothing more than a pleasing melody. Then in his twenties he added the 5 Ecossaises and 2 Ecossaises that in total add two and a minutes. Very good sound recording in the UK’s Birmingham Conservatoire.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

After its recording of Dvorák’s complete chamber music with piano, the Busch Trio now tackles three works by Franz Schubert, including his famous Piano Trio no.2. While the dying composer dedicated this masterpiece ‘to nobody, save those who find pleasure in it,’ as if urging them to enjoy the life that was gradually ebbing away from him, his “Notturno” for piano trio D 897 expresses an anguish and a sense of tragedy that makes it one of the most eloquent examples of Romantic lyricism. Schubert’s early period is represented by his very first piece for piano and strings, the single-movement Sonatensatz D28, which he composed at the age of fifteen. Written following the youthful Schubert’s expulsion from the Imperial Choir School in Vienna after his voice broke (he lost his mother the same year), this piece, still heavily influenced by Classicism, offers a troubling counterpoint to the works of his Romantic maturity, which reflect both the joy of creation and the suffering wrought by illness.

The excellent performances captured on Ghosts were recorded in May 2018 at the unique venue Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo, also called The St. James Church of Culture. The album contains selections from the Norwegian trios five albums released since 2007, and as journalist Audun Vinger states in the liner notes: seamlessly blending into each other, like old friends meeting up at the end of the year, a bit more mature and perhaps also a bit weary, but still able to find the excitement of early beginnings through conversation. The sublime percussion of Jonas Howden Sj�vaag in tandem with the hungry fingers and drifting bow work from Sigurd Hole invites piano craftsman Andreas Ulvo to wring moments of pure power and elegance from his beautiful grand piano. Enjoy the ghosts of Eple Trio!

In a series of 3 albums, the Beethoven Trio Bonn explores the confrontation between one of Beethoven’s standard works for piano trio with a further “house music” arrangement of one of his orchestral works. More than providing an interesting pairing, the Beethoven Trio Bonn was keen on interpreting an original work for piano trio alongside an arrangement of an orchestral work “downsized” to piano trio format. Here the very well-known Piano Trio No. 4 (Gassenhauer) with his enormous witty playfulness (we listen to the version with the violin instead of the clarinet) and his three (!) movements is partnered with the Symphony No. 6, in an arrangement of the Brahms friend Christian Gottlieb Belcke.

Schubert's String Trio was modeled after the example of Beethoven, and it's transparent textures, Classical structure and fine interplay are capped by a charming Rondo finale. Composed over a decade later, during the period of his final illness, the String Quintet is wholly different in character. Scored for two violins, viola and two cellos, it is one of the most compelling and moving works in the chamber music canon, and stands as the summation of Schubert's writing for chamber forces. Praised by The Strad magazine and The New York Times, internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Peled has released over a dozen recordings on several labels including Naxos. The Aviv Quartet made their Naxos debut in 2003, presenting Hoffmeister's Op. 14 String Quartets (8. 555952). It was followed by Schulhoff's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 on 8. 570965, which received positive feedback from ClassicsToday. Com: 'This music, rhythmically charged and alternately folk-inflected and harmonically contemporary, is absolutely wonderful, and it's very well played... The group is also quite sensitive to Schulhoff's use of tone-color'.

This new release is a project that presents the talent of Abraham Barrera (Keyboard / composition), Giovanni Figueroa and Moises Reyes. It juxtaposes the regional sound of the tuba with the electronic personality of synths and the mixture of regional and jazz rhythms are pertinently exposed. Each theme of 'Ey' TRIO maintains a harmonic structure of wide range that allows improvisation and dialogue between the instruments creating an interesting progression of textures.

As a piano trio, we find it particularly interesting to discover music that is seldom recorded or performed. We enjoy the artistic challenge of interpreting such works using our own individual approach and it enables us to offer interesting and diverse programming. The idea of uncovering and recording lesser known pieces for our first album led us to include a wonderful early work by George Enescu, his Trio No. 1, along with the youthful Benjamin Britten's Introduction and Allegro. Finding our own voice with these scores, free from preconceived musical ideas or influences, is a process that inspires us. It is an exploration that we regard as an invaluable experience. Both Enescu and Britten found inspiration through Ravel's music and this in turn led us to his Piano Trio in A minor, hailed as one of the great masterworks of the 20th century... (Amatis Trio)

Throughout his life, Philipp Scharwenka (1847-1917) was eclipsed by his younger brother, Franz Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924), who made a world-renowned career as a piano virtuoso. It is only from the historical perspective that it becomes clear that Philipp was superior to his brother as a composer. This is demonstrated by this album, supplementing Philipp Scharwenka’s meager discography with his works for violin, viola and piano. Violinist Laurent Albrecht Breuninger heads up this project, joined by violist Lise Berthaud and pianist Oliver Triendl.

David Ponsford writes: "My justification for arranging these works for two harpsichords derives from the preface to Fran�ois Couperin's L'apoth�ose de Lully (1725) in which he describes the manner in which he often played trio sonatas on two harpsichords: Trios... can be played on two harpsichords... I play them with my family and pupils with very happy success, namely, by playing the first treble part and the bass on one of the harpsichords; and the second treble part and the same bass on the other harpsichord tuned to the same pitch. Now, it is highly unlikely that Couperin knew Bach's Organ Trio Sonatas, but one of Couperin's musical missions was to render equal status to Italian and French styles, and many of his trio movements are written in Italian style. Likewise, Bach's trio sonatas are thoroughly Italian in style. Hence, for me, the experiment of arranging Bach's Organ Trio Sonatas (BWV 525-530) was too tempting to resist. Furthermore, with two harpsichords whose compasses extend down to bottom FF, a fifth lower than the organ, opportunities are presented for playing the bass down an octave, at both 8-foot and 16-foot pitches, and both the harpsichordists' right hands have the potential to fill in some continuo chords when opportunities arise. The result is a transformation of these famous trio sonatas, giving them a character that is neither better nor worse than interpretations on the organ, but very different and no less exciting."