Album

Smetana Trio

Martinů: The Complete Piano Trios

Catalogue Number: SU 4197-2
Published: 18th March 2016
Genre: Chamber Music
Format: 1 CD
This album has received following awards:
  • Disc of the Month, BBC Music Magazine (2016)
  • Sunday Times Album of the Week (2016)
  • Diapason d´Or, Diapason Magazine (2016)
  • BBC Music Magazine Chamber Award (2017)
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 first, five-movement, trio, Cinq pi?ces br?ves (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 - in February 1939, a month prior to the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and half a year before the outbreak of World War II ... The last two piano trios, composed in the 1950s, bear all the features 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 first new Supraphon album of the complete Martinů piano trios in more than 30 years...

Reviews

“The virtuoso demands of this hugely attractive music are meat and drink to these wonderful Czech musicians, including Jitka Cechova. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a better way to get to know this exhilarating and fresh music than from the hands, heads and hearts of the Smetanas.”
The Sunday Times, 3rd April 2016

“It's already obvious that the music for piano trio performed here by the Smetana Trio is going straight on the shortlist for 2016. Martinu's cham­ber music reveals originality at every turn; there's so much of it, but each new discovery — sonata, duo, trio, quartet, serenade — seems to unveil a gem….It's hard to imagine more ardent champions for this visceral, unpredictable music. And clear, warm sound is exactly what we've come to expect from the Supraphon label over the years.”
BBC Music Magazine, June April 2016

Bohuslav Martinů
Piano Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano No. 3 in C Major, H. 332
1. Allegro moderato 07:58
2. Andante 06:30
3. Allegro 06:15
Bohuslav Martinů
Bergerettes for Violin, Cello and Piano (Trio), H. 275
4. Poco allegro - Trio: Poco meno mosso 04:17
5. Allegro con brio - Trio: Poco meno mosso 04:27
6. Andantino - Trio: Moderato 04:49
7. Allegro 02:24
8. Moderato - Trio: Poco allegretto 05:59
Bohuslav Martinů
Piano Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano No. 2 in D Minor, H. 327
9. Allegro moderato 04:58
10. Andante 07:03
11. Allegro 04:44
Bohuslav Martinů
Piano Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano No. 1 in C minor "Cinq piéces bréves", H. 193
12. Allegro moderato 01:48
13. Adagio 04:02
14. Allegro 01:35
15. Allegro moderato 01:44
16. Allegro con brio 02:26