PACM039:
Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 - Mendelssohn
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Zilcher
Trio:
Prof.
Dr. Hermann Zilcher - Piano
Prof.
Adolf Schiering - Violin
Prof.
Ernst Cahnbley - Cello
Recorded
in Germany by Homochord in 1930
Released in the UK as Parlophone E11210-213 in Oct. 1932
Deleted in the UK April 1941
Matrix Numbers: H53096-9, H53102-5
Believed all second takes
Original
78rpm disc transfers by Keith Claxton, London, 2006
We are grateful to Keith Claxton for providing the source material
and informtaion for this recording.
Download ID: 223713, 434946
(Duration
30'24")
Play sample movement:
Introduction:
Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany on 3rd February, 1809 into
a distinguished and afflluent family of bankers, intellectuals and artists.
A child prodigy, he produced his first composition in 1820; a constant
stream of work continued throughout his relatively short life - he died
in Leipzig on 4th November, 1847 at the age of just 38. These notes, which
accompany Pristine Audio's Mendelssohn Edition, released to mark the 160th
anniversary of his oratio Elijah,
our first award-winning release for Divine Art, follow Mendelssohn's life
through eight compositions newly remastered for August 2006.
The
Mendelssohn Trail - Part 8 of 8
Music composed 1845
Following
the effective resignation of his Berlin post, Mendelssohn was happy to
return in 1845 to Leipzig, where the King of Saxony had requested he resume
his former post. Despite growing ill health the warmth of his reception
in the town must have done much to lift his spirits - the season got off
to an excellent start with a first concert at which Clara Schumann played
and Mendelssohn was greeting back with spontaneous enthusiasm.
Of his
two Piano Trios, as previously observed in these notes, this second has
perhaps the edge over the first, with stronger material in the outer movements,
a lively scherzo to match the earlier piece, though perhaps not quite
the same heights of lyrical perfection achieved in the slow movement.
In this
recording we are grateful to Parlophone enthusiast and long-time friend
of Pristine Audio, Mr Keith Claxton, for unearthing a forgotten gem from
this distinguished trio of German academics, which we understand to have
been recorded in 1930 and issued two years later in the UK on the discs
from which our transcription was taken. Once the listener adjusts to the
slightly "underwater" ambiance of the piano this is surely a
performance worth hearing again.
Elijah
By the
the time Mendelssohn had written his second Piano Trio, work was already
well underway for the mammoth task that was Elijah, which was to
be one of his final compositions. The commission had come from Birmingham,
in the English Midlands, together with a request for Mendelssohn to conduct
at the 1846 Birmingham Festival. However, with increasingly poor health,
by December of 1845 word was sent to the effect that, although he would
attend the festival, he could only undertake to conduct his own works
there.
Increasingly
exhausted by conducting duties, Mendelssohn finally completed Elijah
in July 1846, and travelled first to London on 17th August before journeying
on to Birmingham, where the work received its rapturous first performance
on 26th August.
"It
was quite evident at the first rehearsal in London that they liked it,
and liked to sing and play it; but I own that I was far from anticipating
that it would acquire such fresh vigour and impetus as the performance"
- Mendelssohn, in a letter to his brother, Paul
The success
of the work continued in London, where following its first performance
there the Prince Consort sent the composer a book of the words he had
used, inscribed thus:
To the
noble artist who, though encompassed by the Baal-worship of false art,
by his genius and study has succeeded, like another Elijah, in faithfully
preserving the worship of true art; once more habituating the ear, amid
the giddy whirl of empty frivolous soun, to the pure tones of sympathetic
feeling and legitimate harmony; to the great master who, by the tranquil
current of his thoughts, reveals to us the gentle whisperings, as well
as the mighty strife of the elements, to him is this written in grateful
rememberance by - ALBERT
Mendelssohn
eventually left England on 6th October 1846, arriving back in Leipzig
exhausted. Just over a year later he was dead, the only other work of
any significance being a string quartet written at Interlaken in the summer
of 1847.
[We have two recordings of Elijah available - a superb 1954 Decca recording conducted by Josef Krips, and the earlier, 1930 Columbia recording, released in 2005 through Divine Art Historic Sound:]
Some eighty-four
years later Elijah received its first (almost) complete recording,
in 1930, by an illustrious cast of the finest performers in England at
the time. A further 75 years were to pass before this recording was dusted
off, restored and remastered by Pristine Audio for Divine Art. It won
the prestigious Choral CD of the Year award in Classic Record Collector
magazine. In the magazine's original review, David Patmore commented:
What
especially distinguishes this first reissue in any longplaying format
is the astoundingly good quality of the transfers by Andrew Rose of Pristine
Sound [sic]. He has successfully managed to do away with the aural
“murk” which characterises so many recordings from this period,
to reveal a clear and relatively well balanced aural picture. The notes
are informative. If Divine Art’s new Historic Sound label is able
to maintain these first rate standards of production and repertoire, its
future publications will be well worth acquiring, as is certainly the
case with this excellent release.
The
Mendelssohn Trail - on to Elijah
Back to start
REVIEW
OF:
Mendelssohn: Trio #1 in D Minor (Santoliquido
Trio) (1955); Trio #2 in C Minor (Zilcher Trio) (1930); Violin
Sonata in F (1838) (Menuhin, Moore) (1953)
These
are three very fine works that give the lie to the view that
Mendelssohn was "played out" in his later years.
It is true that many of the later compositions (the later
Songs Without Words, the Organ Sonatas, etc.) are not first
class compositions. They are plagued by Mendelssohn's fatal
fluency, his thinking with his fingers and not with his head
and heart. These three works are almost entirely free of that.
The
Trio #1 in D Minor is a mostly superb work and has
greatly outshone its sister trio (#2) in popularity if not
quality. Much of its popularity is due to the magnificently
sweeping opening cello theme of the first movement. It is
ironic that the piano part, which has, it seems, thousands
of arpeggios, never really gets to play a primary role. It's
constant motion moves things forward without saying anything
on its own. Under lesser pianists, its endless chattering
can become tiresome. Not so under the Santoliquido Trio. They
open the work rather more slowly and somberly than usual,
but soon rise to powerful climaxes. To make up for the first
movement, the piano takes the lead in all three splendid remaining
movements with the Santoliquido playing the third movement
with great panache. One notices that wonderful integration
of the playing in this trio, usually only a characteristic
of ensembles that have been together a long time. The trio
was formed in Rome in 1942, made a few very fine records,
but never achieved the international prominence they deserved.
The sound is entirely worthy of the performance-clean, noisefree
and rich.
The
Pristine Audio editor has suggested that the Trio #2 in
C Minor, the neglected younger sister of the D Minor,
may actually be a finer work. Though it has no such sweeping
melody as the opening of #1, its material is actually richer
and bolder and the working out is often more imaginative.
The first movement opens with the piano giving out a restless
and really minorish theme. A triumphant theme in the major
follows. The development is ingenious in manipulating the
themes. The coda is wonderful, inspired, touching. The second
movement does not match the first in quality, sounding an
extended song without words although played with great feeling
by the Zilcher Trio. The third movement is another Mendlssohnian
exercise with fairies and elves and the Zilcher give a quicksilver
lightness to it. The finale really sounds like a finale with
emphatic themes and a sense of real completion at the end.
The Zilcher Trio is new to me and they are a superb ensemble.
I am quite thrilled with the playing of the trio. Pristine
Audio has reprocessed the 1930 sound so that it has plenty
of bite and warmth.
The
Violin Sonata (1838) is almost unknown, but deserves
to be ranked with the three Schumann sonatas, though not with
the Brahms' works. The first movement begins with a stalwart
Mendelssohnian pronouncement (meant to be powerful but not
completely convincing) and continues with a yielding second
theme. The development begins on a soft note but does a good
job of dissecting the opening theme.
There
is a brilliant and extended coda which Menuhin plays very
well. The second movement presents a pensive theme on the
piano, beautifully restated on the violin which then modules
to a second theme. There is considerable agitation in the
middle part. A rapid, moto perpetuo finale which never stops
spinning finishes the sonata. Menuhin and Moore do excellent
justice to this this work which deserves to be better known.
The sound is clear and, for my taste, unexceptionable.
It
has been a real privilege to rehear these Mendelssohn's chamber
works, particularly to gain a greater appreciation of the
Trio #2
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