The performances on this disc were originally issued in 1999 and are a richly merited reissue. Ravel disparaged his own Piano Trio, telling the performers at the premiere that "I prefer the ingenuous power of my Quartet to the scholarship of the Trio." "Scholarship" is an odd word for the work -- there is nothing either academic or antique about it -- but it does exist at the opposite emotional pole from La Valse. It is not a serious piece. Annotator Marcel Marnat described the opening Allegro as "a model of nonchalant ...
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The performances on this disc were originally issued in 1999 and are a richly merited reissue. Ravel disparaged his own Piano Trio, telling the performers at the premiere that "I prefer the ingenuous power of my Quartet to the scholarship of the Trio." "Scholarship" is an odd word for the work -- there is nothing either academic or antique about it -- but it does exist at the opposite emotional pole from La Valse. It is not a serious piece. Annotator Marcel Marnat described the opening Allegro as "a model of nonchalant luminosity," and that description might apply to much of the music on the disc. The little-heard piano trio by Ernest Chausson, from early in that late bloomer's compositional career, is a perfect accompaniment for the Ravel. Its central movements are its best ones. Sample the series of feints and half-finished ideas that serves as an introduction to the scherzo-like second movement, track 6, and stick around for the main theme, a model of deceptive simplicity. The performance by Trio...
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Add this copy of Ravel: Piano Trio; Chausson: Piano Trio to cart. $6.79, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brooklyn Park, MN, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Harmonia Mundi.
