account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Complete Piano Trios

Altenberg Trio Wien

Complete Piano Trios

Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917211122
Catnr: SACC 72111
Release date: 30 September 2004
Notify when available
1 SACD
Notify when available
 
Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917211122
Catalogue number
SACC 72111
Release date
30 September 2004
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

Camille Saint-Saëns composed these two piano trios some 30 years apart. They could hardly be more different. The First Trio is a model of jubilance, youthful optimism, and sheer joy. The quick, nimble Scherzo darts about with mischievous frivolity while even Andante (in A minor) is far from a brooding affair. The Second Trio is a much darker, solemn, ominous contribution. Saint-Saëns even breaks the mold of the traditional four-movement trio and adds an uncustomary fifth movement. Both trios place great demands on the technical abilities, ensemble cohesiveness, attention to detail, and sound quality of its performers.

C. Saint-Saëns - ​Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18

Saint-Saëns worked on his first piano trio in the period from summer 1863 to October 1864.

During the third quarter of the 19th century, when the French only seemed interested in opera, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), almost single-handedly, attempted to make the case for chamber music, which so many of his countrymen continued to think of as something German. Although famous for his larger orchestral works and instrumental concertos, he devoted a great deal of time and effort to writing chamber music. Not only does he have two string quartets to his credit, but he also wrote three works for piano trio, a serenade for piano, organ, violin and viola ( or cello), a quintet for piano, two violins, viola and cello, a Caprice on Danish & Russian Aires for piano, flute, oboe and B flat clarinet and his Septet for piano, trumpet, two violins, viola, cello and bass.

Although the First Piano Trio is a relatively early work, by the time he came to write it in 1863, Saint-Saëns already had composed a piano quintet, a piano trio suite and a serenade for violin, viola and organ. The well-respected critic and savant, Emile Baumann, writes of Piano Trio No.1 as follows:
"The First Piano Trio is one of the most inspired moments of his youth. The opening theme of the first movement, Allegro vivace, expresses the joy of adventure. Its alluring gaiety communicates itself to the cello and permeates passages that are heavy with foreboding as well as those that are buoyant. The following Andante is a model of plastic and expressive melody. The main theme unfolds like an ancient ballad while the conclusion is filled with an intimate tenderness. The sprightly third movement, Scherzo, is filled with humor and wonderful cross rhythms and pizzicato effects. Much of the same buoyant spirit of the first movement is also to be found in the boisterous finale, Allegro."

C. Saint-Saëns - Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 92

Saint-Saëns worked on his second piano trio from February to May 1892. It is one of the great masterpieces of the piano trio literature.

"I am working quietly away at a trio which I hope will drive to despair all those unlucky enough to hear it. I shall need the whole summer to perpetrate this atrocity, one must have a little fun somehow." So wrote Saint-Saëns to a close friend in the spring of 1892 about what has often been called the greatest French piano trio of the 19th century. The truth was that Saint-Saëns worked long and hard on this work, putting, as one critic noted, all of his accumulated experience and wisdom into this it.

Piano Trio No.2 begins with an Allegro non troppo which is dark and ominous. It is a leisurely theme which takes its time as it builds tension toward an inevitable climax. When the climax is finally reached, powerful torrents of emotion are released. A second theme, a long time in coming, is more lyrical and optimistic. The chirpy theme of the second movement, Allegretto, begins like an inconsequential salon piece, but suddenly violent bursts of emotion interrupt it, and then a hectic, almost frantic melody, racing helter skelter, follows. When the main theme to the third and middle movement, Andante con moto, is briefly stated by the piano, it sounds almost inane, but as the strings enter, immediately the music exudes a strong perfume of romance, which over time reaches considerable emotional heights. The Grazioso poco allegretto which follows, though it starts with a dark chord, is light and graceful. The finale, Allegro, begins quietly and in a sinister vein. A canonic fugue is briefly begun and interrupted as the music skyrockets forward with tremendous élan.
Twee totaal verschillende pianotrio’s van een en dezelfde componist
Het Altenberg Trio Wien speelt in deze opname 2 pianotrio’s van Charles Camille Saint-Saëns. De componist schreef de trio's met een tussenpoos van ruim 30 jaar. Ze hadden dan ook niet meer van elkaar kunnen verschillen. De één uitbundig, met jeugdig optimisme en pure vreugde. De ander somber en onheilspellend, overigens een meesterwerk. Eén overeenkomst hebben de stukken wel: ze doen een groot beroep op de technische vaardigheden, de samenhang, de aandacht voor details en de geluidskwaliteit van de uitvoerenden. En dat is het Altenberg Trio wel toevertrouwd.

Pianotrio's zijn muziekstukken, speciaal gecomponeerd voor een kamermuziekensemble, dat bestaat uit een piano en 2 andere instrumenten, meestal viool en cello. Het Altenberg Trio Wien is zo'n ensemble, opgericht in Wenen in1994 en in Europa een van de bekendste piano trio's van deze tijd.

Charles Camille Saint-Saëns, in 1835 geboren in Parijs, was enig kind. Zijn vader overleed vlak voor zijn geboorte. Hij werd door zijn moeder en oudtante opgevoed. Zij zorgden voor een omgeving, waarin hij al jong met muziek en literatuur opgroeide. Camille blijkt een wonderkind, 4 jaar en hij schreef zijn eerste muziek. Al vroeg volgde hij piano- en orgelles, las Latijn en was geïnteresseerd in natuurwetenschappen. Met 11 jaar trad hij op met pianosonates van Ludwig van Beethoven en op zijn 13e werd hij zonder pardon aangenomen op het conservatorium van Parijs. 18 jaar was Saint-Saëns toen hij zijn 1e symfonie schreef. Na gelukkige beginjaren keerde het tij en werd Saint-Saëns na een roerig leven op middelbare leeftijd depressief. Alleen zijn 2 honden en maatje Gabriel Fauré hielden hem gezelschap. Toch bleef hij componeren. Zijn verre reizen inspireerden de componist van Het Carnaval der dieren (1886), waarschijnlijk zijn bekendste werk. Hoewel op het laatst buiten Frankrijk mateloos populair, bekritiseerden Franse collega's Saint-Saëns voortdurend. Wellicht ingegeven door zijn onaangename karakter. Saint-Saëns stierf in 1921 in Algiers.

Artist(s)

Altenberg Trio Wien

The Altenberg Trio of Vienna came into being when Claus-Christian Schuster and Martin Hornstein, members of the Vienna Schubert Trio and Amiram Ganz, the initiator and violinist of the Shostakovitch Trio joined forces in January 1994. All three musicians had earned critical acclaim and world wide recognition with their performances in the world's most important chamber music venues for many years prior to the formation of the Altenberg Trio. Since its debut at the 1994 Salzburg Mozart Week, the Altenberg Trio has enjoyed great success with performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. The ensemble regularly appears in such distinguished venues as London, Wigmore Hall and was invited to perform at the Prague Spring Festival and the Orlando Festival....
more
The Altenberg Trio of Vienna came into being when Claus-Christian Schuster and Martin Hornstein, members of the Vienna Schubert Trio and Amiram Ganz, the initiator and violinist of the Shostakovitch Trio joined forces in January 1994. All three musicians had earned critical acclaim and world wide recognition with their performances in the world's most important chamber music venues for many years prior to the formation of the Altenberg Trio. Since its debut at the 1994 Salzburg Mozart Week, the Altenberg Trio has enjoyed great success with performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. The ensemble regularly appears in such distinguished venues as London, Wigmore Hall and was invited to perform at the Prague Spring Festival and the Orlando Festival. In Australia the trio performs often at the Salzburg Mozarteum and presents a regular concert at Vienna's famed "Musikverein".
The "Viennese Touch", for which the Altenberg Trio has often been commended, is not simply a question of musical technique - phrasing, vibrato or portamento, dynamic or agogic accents, although these are a part of it. The Viennese style represents a specific artistic orientation, rooted in a city that was the center of an empire and the crossroads of many distinctive cultures in the 18th and 19th centuries. This style may be best-known outside of Austria through the city's music, because that is the art, whose stylistic refinements have made the strongest international impression. But it is also reflected in literature, painting (Klimt), architecture, psychology (Freud), philosophy (Wittgenstein) and even cuisines. That is one reason why it makes sense, for a pianist, violinist and cellist to form a trio named after a poet. Peter Altenberg (1859-1919), whose life and works reflect the spirit of an era when literature, science, art and music were closely interactive.

less

Amiram Ganz

Violinist Amiram Ganz was born in Montevideo. He began to study violin in Uruguay with Israel Chorberg, the Leopold Auer-pupil Ilya Fidlon, and Jorge Risi. At the age of eleven he won the Jeunesses Musicales Contest and then continued his studies with Richard Burgin in the U.S.A. and Alberto Lysy at the International Academy of Chamber Music in Rome. Studying on a scholarship at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory between 1974 and 1979 he met Victor Pikaisen, who became his teacher. As finalist and award winner of several international competitions (Long-Thibaud/Paris, ARD/Munich, etc.), he became first concert master of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in 1980. From 1987 until the foundation of the Altenberg Trio he was the violinist of the...
more
Violinist Amiram Ganz was born in Montevideo. He began to study violin in Uruguay with Israel Chorberg, the Leopold Auer-pupil Ilya Fidlon, and Jorge Risi. At the age of eleven he won the Jeunesses Musicales Contest and then continued his studies with Richard Burgin in the U.S.A. and Alberto Lysy at the International Academy of Chamber Music in Rome. Studying on a scholarship at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory between 1974 and 1979 he met Victor Pikaisen, who became his teacher. As finalist and award winner of several international competitions (Long-Thibaud/Paris, ARD/Munich, etc.), he became first concert master of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in 1980. From 1987 until the foundation of the Altenberg Trio he was the violinist of the Shostakovitch Trio, appearing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, etc. In 1994 he became a founding member of the Altenberg Trio of Vienna with pianist Claus-Christian Schuster and cellist Martin Hornstein, who was succeeded in 2004 by Alexander Gebert. With the Altenberg Trio Ganz performes in Europe and North America.
As a soloist he has collaborated with conductors Alain Lombard, Günter Kehr, Theodor Guschlbauer, Marc Soustrot, James Judd, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Nicolas Pasquet und others. He teaches violin and chamber music in Vienna Conservatory (Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität). Amiram Ganz plays a violin built in Saluzzo in 1686 by Goffredo Cappa (1644-1717); it was made available to the trio by an anonymous patron.

less

Composer(s)

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first pieces of music at the age of four and making his concert debut at the age of ten. During this concert he astonished the audience by playing one of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at its request. After his studying at the Conservatory of Paris he followed a career as a church organist at Saint-Merri and later La Madeleine in Paris. He was also a successful freelance composer and pianist in France and abroad. Saint-Saëns initially helped to introduce German composers such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner in France. However, from 1870 onwards anti-German sentiments began to arise in France as...
more
Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first pieces of music at the age of four and making his concert debut at the age of ten. During this concert he astonished the audience by playing one of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at its request. After his studying at the Conservatory of Paris he followed a career as a church organist at Saint-Merri and later La Madeleine in Paris. He was also a successful freelance composer and pianist in France and abroad.
Saint-Saëns initially helped to introduce German composers such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner in France. However, from 1870 onwards anti-German sentiments began to arise in France as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, which enhanced support for the idea of a pro-French musical society. In 1871 Saint-Saëns consequently founded the Société Nationale de Musique together with Romain Bussine, that was devoted to the promotion of French music and organised concerts on which young composers could perform their works.
Saint-Saëns was a keen traveler, and made 179 trips to 27 different countries during his life. He favoured Algeria and Egypt, were he gained inspiration for compositions such as the Suite Algérienne and the Fifth Piano Concerto, also known as The Egyptian.
Saint-Saëns' best-known works include the First Cello Concerto, Third Symphony, the opera Samson et Dalila, Danse Macabre and Le carnaval des animaux, a humorous suite in which various animals are musically portrayed. However, he never wanted the last work to be performed, since it was contrary to his image as a serious composer.
less

Press

Play album Play album

Often bought together with..

Ludwig van Beethoven
Complete Works for Piano Trio vol. 5
Van Baerle Trio | Residentie Orkest The Hague

You might also like..

Artur Malawski, Krzysztof Meyer
Polish Piano Trios
Altenberg Trio Wien
Hans Pfitzner, Arnold Schönberg
Verklärte Nacht / Piano Trio
Altenberg Trio Wien
Complete Works for Piano Trio
Altenberg Trio Wien
Piano Trio D929
Altenberg Trio Wien