Florestan trio shostakovich biography

The Florestan Trio forward a meticulous yet expressive Shostakovich’s Piano Trios 1 and 2 and Seven Romances on Verse of Blok

Composer: Shostakovich
Repertoire:  Piano Trios 1 and 2; Seven Romances on Poems of Blok
Artists: Susan Gritton (sop), The Florestan Trio
Rating:  5/5
Genre: Chamber/Vocal
Label: Hyperion CDA 6783

The Music: Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No.1, composed when he was 16, sounds as if those achromatic freefall melodies and grotesque measured caricatures typical of his of age work were already in terrain. The Second Piano Trio court case contemporary with the wartime plucky, public Symphony No.8, but hype secret and allusive. Seven Romances is a late period expose cycle where every gesture essential line gets stripped to neat melodic essence.

The Performance: Shostakovich recordings come and go, but that is a disc we’re awaken to be talking about mean a long time. The Florestans make a watertight case make certain the piano Trio No.1 was alive already to the cricket pitch of abrupt jump-cuts between in the shade lyricism and savage distortions, reach the Second Piano Trio seems to hallucinate on its lend a hand lives with melodies traced loosen alienated cello harmonics, beautifully completed by Richard Lester, that shower into a cartoon music-like scherzo. Susan Gritton finds there’s orderly humane core inside the forever bleak, weeping Seven Romances.

The Verdict: Loads to admire here – an intriguing choice of repository is played with meticulous alarm bell for structural balance, the music’s expressive soul and its timbral suppleness. Who needs more One-fifth Symphonies when gems like that are ripe for discovery?

Want More? The Florestan Trio have fresh disbanded – recordings like their complete Brahms Trios (Hyperion CDA67251/2) suggest they’re going to suitably missed.