Piano Trio No. 2 / Piano Quartet No. 1
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CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD
Piano Trio No. 2 / Piano Quartet No. 1
Gould Piano Trio, with David Adams (viola)
[ Naxos / CD ]
Release Date: Sunday 5 April 2015
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
One of Britain's leading composers and educators of his day, Stanford considered chamber music an essential representation of 'absolute music'. His mastery of extended instrumental forms truly comes of age in the First Piano Quartet, a work which breathes a confidence and fluency to rival Brahms. An adventurous harmonic palette distinguishes the Second Piano Trio, the Beethovenian pathos of its slow movement contrasting with the defiant turbulence of its cyclically related outer movements. The Gould Trio is 'magnificently stylish' (Gramophone) in their recording of Stanford's First Piano Trio (8572452).
Our catalogue of Charles Villiers Stanford already includes four volumes of his complete symphonies, and our coverage of his excellent chamber music has already gone from strength to strength. The Gould Trio's world première recording of his Third Piano Trio (8570416) was a Gramophone 'Editor's Choice' and acclaimed as "absolutely first-class", while the First Piano Trio and Second Piano Quartet (8572452) with David Adams was a MusicWeb International 'Recording of the Year', American Record Guide 'Critic's Choice', and with Gramophone concluding that, with "top-notch production values throughout, this generously filled disc should be snapped up without delay."
"The relative smallness of piano trio repertory is partly due to the medium's balance difficulties...Such is Stanford's skill in the Piano Trio No. 2 that the problem seems not to exist: its three performers clearly revel in the music's transparency and freedom, Benjamin Frith's piano-playing a feast of tonal loveliness and supple phrasing." BBC Music Magazine, April 2015 ****
"the excellent Gould Trio are making a case for [Stanford's chamber works]. The confident, expertly worked outer movements sound to me a bit too Brahmsian for their own individuality, but the middle movements - the quartet's incisive scherzo, the trio's beautiful andante - are true inventions." Sunday Times, 22nd March 2015
'It's more than three years since the previous Stanford volume from this superb group: they clearly love this music, and it's a joyous listen to place alongside its equally fine predecessors.' Editor's Choice Gramophone April 2015
Tracks:
Piano Trio No. 2 in G minor, Op. 73
Piano Quartet No. 1 in F with David Adams (viola)
