Trio Sōra Revels in Brahms Piano Trios
BRAHMS: THE PIANO TRIOS
Album release 26 April 2024 · La Dolce Volta LDV132.3 (double disc set)
Trio No 1 Op 8 (revised 1889 version)
Trio No 2 Op 87
Trio No 3 Op 101
Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn Op 40 (version with cello transcribed by Brahms himself)
In their own way, these four trios mark milestones on the long path of Johannes Brahms’s life. They reflect what was going on inside him: the impetuosity of his youth, the surge of love, then trials, wisdom, resignation and nostalgia. That’s another reason why we wanted to record these trios complete: we had to walk all the way along the path with him, in its fullness.
Angèle Legasa, Trio Sōra
Since it was founded in 2015, this vivacious trio has revelled in big ideas and committed itself to refreshing great works of the piano trio repertory with a new dynamic. Following its debut recording of the complete Beethoven piano trios, no less, Trio Sōra has now delved into all that Brahms has to offer in the oeuvre for its second album, this Nme on the La Dolce Volta label.
The spirit and passion of youth dominates Brahms’s first trio, a work of unprecedented dimensions, composed in 1853 when he was 21 while staying with Robert and Clara Schumann, for whom he felt great love and gratitude. Less emotional and more compact, his Op 87 is a complex work of interlocking elements and musical conversations written when he was approaching 50. Several symphonies and major concerti later, Brahms was on the verge of old age when he created his last piano trio in 1886; much shorter than the others, it nevertheless seems a gigantic work, one of grandeur and eloquence with many echoes of the gypsy and folkloric music that were an indelible part of his personal history. The trio in which Brahms assigned the melody to the horn (later transcribed for cello), was written soon
after his mother died and is ultimately elegaic and imbued with a sense of resignation.
As well as supporting the making of this album, BBT also funded the commissioning of a triple concerto for the Trio from Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy, premiered on 18 February 2022 with co-commissioner Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck. Another landmark in Trio Sōra’s ‘big ideas’ portfolio.
Listen to excerpts here
Watch Trio Sōra play Brahms Wiegenlied here