Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, op. 67; Weinberg: Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello, op. 24; Alexander Weprik: Three Folk Dances, op. 13b.
Dmitry Sitkovetsky (violin), David Geringas (cello), Jascha Nemtsov (piano).
Hänssler Classic CD 98.481. DDD. TT 60.27.
Recorded in Bavaria Musikstudios, Munich, 16-18 December 2004.

Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, op. 8; Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, op. 67; Seven Romances on Verses by Alexander Blok, op. 127[a].
Beaux Arts Trio: Daniel Hope (violin), Antonio Meneses (cello), Menahem Pressler (piano); Joan Rodgers (soprano)[a].
Warner Classics 2564 62514-2. DDD. TT 66:05.
Recorded at Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 8-12 July 2005.

The Russian tradition of elegiac piano trios, exemplified by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, made that genre especially appropriate as the country mourned the losses of war in the mid-1940s; it is not then surprising that those years saw a spate of outstanding trios. Those by Weinberg (1945) and Shostakovich (1944) shared an overall rhetorical shape and many stylistic features, including the prominent use of Jewish musical inflections. In the case of these two composers, however, it has never been easy to pin down who influenced whom: did Weinberg's Jewish Songs, op. 13 and 17 (1943-44), inspire Shostakovich's use of Jewish music in the Second Piano Trio, op. 67 and Second Quartet, op. 68? Or did Shostakovich's work inspire Weinberg to write a Piano Trio featuring Jewish music? Or was the process of influence complex, mutual and ongoing, as it often is between two talented individuals who enjoy each other's work?

In any event, Weinberg's Piano Trio is a masterpiece, a fine and subtle work. Jewish inflections give its melodies a lovely, improvisatory poignancy, as in the violin's wandering little arioso in the first-movement Präludium and the piano recitative that opens the third-movement Poem. The frantic second-movement Toccata is arguably more interesting than similar movements in Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony and Eighth String Quartet and here I would have liked to hear violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky a little less concerned with beauty of sound and more willing to match his colleagues' violence. The Trio's finale, like many Shostakovich finales of this same period, struggles—and fails—to re-gain a sense of normalcy after trauma, and its subdued ending, complete with harmonics and pizzicato chords, is in clear homage to the ending of Shostakovich's 1944 Trio.

In the spirit of this disc's focus on Judaism and Jewishness, the performers have included Three Folk Dances by Alexander Weprik (1899-1958). Weprik, a participant in the Society for Jewish Music in the 1920s, sought also to modernise the teaching of composition and enhance Soviet contacts with contemporary music from Western Europe. Although initially favourably regarded by the Soviet regime, he was arrested in the final Stalinist years, spending four years in a labour camp. These three charming Jewish dances from the 1920s are exquisitely performed by Sitkovetsky, Geringas and Nemtsov with all the teasing nuance of klezmer music.

The group's rendition of Shostakovich's Second Trio, while sensitive, lacks the edginess, tension and black humour that is present in the most imaginative performances of the work, such as that of the Trio Wanderer (Harmonia Mundi HMC 901825; reviewed in DSCH No. 22). Nemtsov's liner notes are also marred by an unqualified quotation from Volkov's Testimony, presented as Shostakovich's own words. No matter. The performers' accomplished performance of two unfamiliar works—the Weinberg Trio and the Weprik Dances—provides reason enough for purchase of this disc.

A second new recording of op. 67 is provided by the Beaux Arts Trio, with pianist Menahem Pressler (b. 1923) beginning his second half-century at the helm. The Beaux Arts, the dean of American piano trios for decades, has recently gone through a series of personnel changes. As in the coupling of Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 1, Pressler's uninspired playing in No. 2 lacks colour and variety, taking the shine off the entire performance and seeming at odds with violinist Daniel Hope, who shows moments of energy and vision. Although these are competent recordings of the Trios, neither is outstanding.

This disc's redeeming feature may be the 1967 Blok Romances, with soprano Joan Rodgers. Rodgers, a trained Russian speaker, has recorded the songs before with Elvira, Alfia and Eleonora Bekova (Chandos CD CHAN 9526; deleted); her diction is lovely and her singing warm and expressive. Those who find Galina Vishnevskaya's live premiere recording with Mstislav Rostropovich, David Oistrakh and Mieczyslaw Weinberg shrill and marred by pitch problems (BMG/Melodiya 74321 53237-2; deleted) may well prefer this recording. On the other hand, compare the grittiness of Oistrakh's sul ponticello sound in The Storm, the plaintiveness of Rostropovich's playing in Ophelia's Song, the baldness of Weinberg's colouring throughout, and most of all, the unvarnished bleakness of Vishnevskaya's often un-lovely voice. Listeners who admire the composer's ability to look unflinchingly at extreme emotions and terrifying questions, may find that the Russian performers—technical problems and all—engage at an emotional level that makes Rodgers and the Beaux Arts players seem tame in comparison.

Judy Kuhn
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