Search - Antonin Dvorak, Florestan Trio, Susan Tomes :: Dvorák: Piano Trios, Opp. 65 & 90

Superb Dvorák Trios by the Florestan Trio

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD combines two rather different but equally marvelous piano trios by Dvorák--the dramatic, Brahmsian No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65 and the much more genial and identifiably Czech No. 4, in E minor, Op. 90, subtitled 'Dumky.' Dvorák wrote six piano trios but only four of them have come down to us. These last two are without doubt the best of those that remain.



The Third Trio was written in 1883 right about the time Dvorák's mother died. It is passionate, dramatic, tragic at times, and written mostly in Brahmsian terms (that is to say, in classical form and using Brahmsian formal, harmonic and contrapuntal gestures) and anticipates the great Seventh Symphony written the year afterward. It's a big, almost forty-minute piece, in four movements. The Florestan Trio, surely one of the great piano trios of our day, with its members Anthony Marwood, violin, Richard Lester, cello, and Susan Tomes, piano, play the work with a good deal of attention to the chiaroscuro effects inherent in the score. Although they are a seasoned group who have played together for many years, the Florestan members each play like the soloists they are so that there is plenty of evidence of individual thoughts about how things should proceed, but without the willfulness sometimes heard when soloists get together just for the occasion of making a recording. I'm particularly fond of Lester's juicy, warm cello sound. Listen about 2 minutes into the first movement of the F minor trio. Lovely. Tomes, well known from her valuable work with Domus, is a very sensitive ensemble player, but when required she can blaze with virtuosity as in the dramatic second movement. Marwood, who can play as sweetly as anyone, is notably rich and lyrical in the Adagio movement. The finale, Allegro con brio, is indeed played with abandon and excitement.



The 'Dumky' Trio is probably the most-played of Dvorák's trios and there are many outstanding recordings of it. This performance can stand toe to toe with any I've ever heard. The dumka, of course, was a quintessential Bohemian form that combined fast/happy sections with slow/sad ones. Incorporating this form into a classical trio required Dvorák to more or less invent a new form, and this he did. The trio has six movements, each a dumka. But it still manages to fall, roughly, into the four movements of a classical piano trio owing to the way the dumkas are arranged. By far the most striking is the third dumka--it is also seemingly the simplest--which combines a gorgeously vocal slow section alternating with polka sections. The Florestan impart the melancholy lyricism of the slow sections and then kick up their heels with the polkas. I actually think this performance outshines the classic Heifetz/Piatagorsky/Lateiner recording on RCA that has been the benchmark for this trio for many years. And it certainly is in better recorded sound. If this CD were an LP I suspect I would have worn out its grooves already. It's that good.



You cannot go wrong here.



TT=67'51"



Scott Morrison"

I second that!

David Dare | Newport, RI USA | 03/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The previous reviewer really said it all. This is a great disc. The Florestan play with their usual quality and the hyperion folks provided a solid recording. Definitely a five star item!"