Ravel & Saint-Saëns: Piano Trios

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It’s ravishingly done by the Sitkovetsky Trio, who more than inhabit the scope of Ravel’s expressive language and ambition in his attempt to expand the form’s musical language. — BBC Music Magazine, October 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Jul 2021
Catalogue No: BIS2219
Label: BIS
Length: 60 minutes

International Classical Music Awards

2022

Nominated - Chamber Music
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2022

Winner - Chamber

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Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

Work length26:46

$5.00

$7.80

$10.50

Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Isang Enders (cello), Wu Qian (piano)
Sitkovetsky Trio

I. Modéré

Track length9:30

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

II. Pantoum

Track length4:27

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Passacaille

Track length7:28

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

IV. Final

Track length5:21

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Saint-Saëns: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Op. 92

Work length33:51

$6.00

$10.35

$14.00

Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Isang Enders (cello), Wu Qian (piano)
Sitkovetsky Trio

I. Allegro non troppo

Track length10:54

$1.50

$3.85

$5.25

II. Allegretto

Track length6:06

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Andante con moto

Track length4:16

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Grazioso, poco allegro

Track length4:39

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Allegro

Track length7:56

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

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About

In 1892, when Camille Saint-Saëns started on his Piano Trio No. 2, almost 30 years had passed since his first, widely celebrated work in the genre, his Op. 18. In the meantime the composer had come to be regarded as hopelessly old-fashioned by many of his colleagues. In writing the trio, Saint-Saëns remained true to his principles as a composer, striving for balance and clarity and avoiding the chromaticism that had become so prevalent in the wake of Wagner. It is nevertheless an unexpectedly personal work, cast, in the unusual form of a symmetrical arch in five parts: two substantial and dramatic Allegros frame three shorter movements, without a proper scherzo or a true slow movement. Some 20 years later, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Maurice Ravel set about composing his own piano trio, in spite of his conviction that the percussive sound of the piano and the sustained singing of the string instruments were fundamentally incompatible. According to Ravel, only Saint-Saëns –who he admired greatly – had managed to solve this problem. If Saint-Saëns was an inspiration to Ravel when composing his Piano Trio in A minor, there were also other influences: the work was written during a stay in the Basque country where Ravel was born and the theme that opens the first movement displays what he himself called ‘a Basque colour’, employing the characteristic rhythms of the zortziko. The two works are here performed by the Sitkovetsky Trio, who have previously won great acclaim for their recordings of Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Dvořák.

Reviews

October 2021

It’s ravishingly done by the Sitkovetsky Trio, who more than inhabit the scope of Ravel’s expressive language and ambition in his attempt to expand the form’s musical language.

Jan/Feb 2022

the new BIS recording at hand offers top-notch performances of Ravel’s Piano Trio and the latter of Saint-Saëns’s two piano trios. If that particular coupling strikes your fancy, you won’t find another one for now that betters it.

September 2021

The playing is at once virtuoso and even-handed, textures and counterpoint beautifully clear.

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Ravel & Saint-Saëns: Piano Trios

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