NEW RECORDING OF THE SMETANA TRIO

The complete set of Bohuslav Martinů’s piano trios affords a fascinating insight into the constant transformations of his musical idiom from the early 1930s to the 1950s, also giving testimony to the composer as a human and his particular mindset. The new Supraphon recording (SU 4197–2), made by the Smetana Trio, was released on 18 March 2016.

The first, five-movement, piano trio, Cinq pièces brèves (1930), was written in a carefree manner (within a mere ten days) and intuitively. It is the very first Martinů piece to reflect his penchant for Neo-Baroque music, so salient a trait of his later creations. The second trio, Bergerettes, comes across as surprisingly light-hearted, given the time of its coming into being – February 1939, a month prior to the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and half a year before the outbreak of World War II … The final two piano trios, composed in the 1950s, bear all the hallmarks of Martinů’s mature musical phraseology. Trio No. 2, completed in 1950, ranks among the apices of Martinů’s Neo-Classicist period, while the structurally more complex Trio No. 3 (also known as the “Grand Trio”) has a concertante nature.

The recording of the complete Martinů trios was made by the renowned Smetana Trio, who masterfully render all the colour shades, from airiness to the broad lyrical cantilena typical of Martinů’s late works. The ensemble’s pianist, Jitka Čechová, says: “Both the performers and the listeners are again and again taken aback by Martinů’s brisk modernism and constructivism in his early Cinq pièces brèves, whose complexity and dissonance come across as incredibly futuristic with regard to the time of its coming into being, 1925. Nonetheless, the return 15 years later to the clear Martinů declamation in the charmingly variable, pastorally lyrical Bergerettes is much closer to our heart.

Martinů ingeniously treats folk-inspired tunes, rhythmicises, adds colour and superimposes non-traditional variegated ideas. We, the performers, are thus afforded scope for many agogic hues within a relatively small area. Returning to the trios in D minor and C major, written one after another in 1950 and 1951, has always inspired and immensely pleased us, as they harbour everything you expect from Bohuslav Martinů – simply his singularly beautiful, ardent music, revealing a nostalgia for Bohemia.”

The Smetana Trio have made a tour of England, mainly performing the Czech repertoire. “By the end of the season, we will have given numerous concerts across the Czech Republic, as well as performances in France and Italy. In the autumn, we are scheduled to revisit South America, this time making a tour of Brazil,” adds Jitka Čechová.

THE FIRST NEW SUPRAPHON RECORDING OF THE COMPLETE MARTINŮ PIANO TRIOS FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS!

For further details please visit:
www.smetana-trio.cz