courtesy of Etcetera Records
Readers may recall that one of the earliest albums to be recorded by violinist Bruno Monteiro was an album of music by Guillaume Lekeu that included a piano trio in C minor. Monteiro’s colleagues for this performance were pianist João Paulo Santos and cellist Miguel Rocha. Both of these performers have again joined Monteiro for his latest album, which features a performance of Ernest Chausson’s Opus 3 piano trio in G minor.
This is his latest release on Etcetera Records; and, as was the case with his prior release, the most reliable way to purchase the album is through its Etcetera Web page. Because Etcetera is based in Belgium, payment is in euros. Only the physical CD is being released, meaning that the buyer may have to be patient in waiting for delivery.
As the Etcetera Web page observes, “this Trio is the first of four great chamber works left to us by Chausson.” He began work in the summer of 1881, after having learned that the composition he had submitted for the Prix de Rome had failed to win any level of the prizes being awarded. To be fair, a visit to Amazon.com will reveal that there is no shortage of different recordings of this trio. Nevertheless, as far as I can tell, this recording was my own “first contact” with Opus 3.
The Trio is followed by two duo compositions by Eugène Ysaÿe. The Opus 12 “Poème élégiaque” was composed for violin and piano. It is followed by the Opus 16 “Méditation,” originally scored for cello and orchestra and performed on this album by cello and piano. Both of these pieces are longer than ten minutes in duration, making them at bit too lengthy for encore selections. However, for those of us that know Ysaÿe primarily (if not entirely) for his Opus 27 set of six solo violin sonatas, these tracks provide two highly engaging journeys of discovery. They distinguish this album from any of the earlier recordings of the Chausson trio and are well worth the value of an encounter with Ysaÿe from a different point of view.
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