The second Shosty Piano Trio, written at the height of Soviet suffering in 1944, has long been regarded as one of the staples of the literature in the twentieth century. His friend, Ivan Sollertinski, had been one of the few who had stuck by him when the party morons came down on the composer the year before for daring to pen his Eighth Symphony. He had started work on a trio when he was informed of his friend’s death, and cast aside the existing work and began again, creating one of his most profound and moving pieces. Personal loss, the war, and the general state of the union at that time all found their way into the pages of this work, and its powerful emotional affections have not subsided even in our contemporary setting.
His Trio No. 1 is in complete contrast; this is a classically structured work of great confidence and not a little showoff, as the composer was only 17 at the time he wrote it. Don’t for one instance think that you would be able to tell that though; as the composer often returned to these models later in life, the work speaks with assurance and gripping technique that show Shostakovich to have matured very early.
The real surprises for me on this disc are the pieces of Paul Juon (1872-1940) a Swiss Muscovite who began his studies at home and finished them in Berlin. His trio has some hints of Slavic soulfulness in it, but not much; the work sounds fully Romantic to me, and not just emulation or second rate. This guy composed well, and his trio, while not sounding like any of the Romantics I know, holds a place of its own and should be more well-known. The same is true of the miniatures. These are delightful vignettes in the manner of Dvorak’s Legends. The music is tuneful (good tunes), and a real pleasure to hear.
And this brings us to the sound, recorded at a fairly high level, but displaying vivid intensity and astonishing realism. It is like having a piano trio in your home. The Super Audio CD makes exceptional use of all speaker channels, and the result is a fine chamber display as if it were being done in an excellent hall.
The relatively young Trio Paian has the full measure of all these works, and at least for the Shostakovich, I cannot recall hearing better performances on any disc. This is superlative music making all around, and worthy of immediate purchase.
— Steven Ritter
