Composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Frank Martin, Bedřich Smetena, Josef Suk
Performer: Neave Trio
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN20272
Release: 2024
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Smetana: Piano Trio, Op. 15
01. I. Moderato assai
02. II. Allegro, ma non agitato
03. III. Finale. Presto
Coleridge-Taylor: Five Negro Melodies for Piano Trio
04. I. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
05. II. I was way down a-yonder
06. III. Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel?
07. IV. They will not lend me a child
08. V. My Lord delivered Daniel
Suk: Petit Trio, Op. 2
09. I. Allegro
10. II. Andante
11. III. Vivace
Martin: Trio
12. I. Allegro moderato
13. II. Adagio
14. III. Gigue
The Neave Trio’s programme Rooted features a range of works based on folk music. Smetana’s distinctive nationalistic style was largely based on the inclusion of bohemian rhythmic and melodic elements, and he was acclaimed in his native Bohemia as the father of Czech music. His Trio in G minor was composed in 1855 as a response to the death of his four-year old daughter and shows the influence of Liszt.
Josef Suk was a favourite pupil of Dvorák’s, and his early Piano Trio, whilst shorter in length and less intense than Smetana’s, is embedded in that Czech tradition. Also deeply influenced by Dvorák, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was inspired by his African heritage, as well, and his Twenty-Four Negro Melodies for Piano was a prime example of his research. He subsequently arranged five of these pieces into the suite for piano trio that we hear on this album. The programme concludes with Frank Martin’s Trio from 1925, which is based on traditional Irish melodies.