The Chimaera Trio debuts on MDG with music of the Fin de Siecle. The Dutch musicians have grouped works by Alban Berg and Anton Webern around the almost symphonic clarinet trio by Alexander von Zemlinsky; the pivotal point of the programme, however, is Gustav Mahler (and not least his wife Alma), whose song transcriptions in this compilation offer room for all kinds of relationship associations.
Gustav Mahler often transcribed his Lieder compositions into purely orchestral works, thus casting them in a completely different light. This is precisely the reason for the Chimaera Trio's extremely beautiful and careful transcriptions of, for example, the "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen". The melancholy in "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (I am lost to the world) is absolutely enchanting!
Despite his rather repulsive appearance, Alexander von Zemlinsky must have had a tremendous charisma. Alma Mahler, quite demanding in her choice of lovers, recognised this discrepancy - and still fell for him.
The trio of the 25-year-old shows a high integrative power: clearly influenced by Brahms, sheer endless melodic arcs and surprising harmonic turns point rather to Richard Wagner - but in symbiosis far into the future.
Meeting Alban Berg and Anton Webern, romantic feeling seems to be condensed into a very small space, and in Webern's "2 Pieces" the reduction is even taken to extremes.
From glowing to concentrated, the Chimaera Trio creates an almost archetypal image of music around 1900 - captured in the finest Super Audio CD technology and opulent spatiality.
