PACM045:
Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor Op.90 ('Dumky') - Dvorak
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Louis
Kentner, piano
Henry Holst, violin
Anthony Pini, cello
Recorded
in 1941, released as UK Columbia DX 1017-1020
Matrix Numbers CAX 8861-8868, Takes 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1
Download ID: 250767, 434952
(Duration
29'20")
Play
sample movement:
Recorded in 1941 for Columbia’s UK division, this elegant rendition of the Dvorak Dumky Trio features Louis (Lajos) Kenner (1905-1987), who gained a considerable reputation for virtuoso pianism in the music of Liszt, Brahms, Liapunov, and chamber music that included work with his brother-in-law, Yehudi Menuhin. Beautifully-restored from shellacs via the XR process by engineer Andrew Rose...
The performance itself captures the totally mercurial temperament of the work, its integration of Bohemian rhythms, folksy melodies, and pungent harmonic progressions, some based on germ-like riffs that explode in the manner of Beethoven. If I am correct, violinist Henry Holst--who worked with the pianist Solomon as well--sported a fine Guarnerius del Gesu whose slick, wiry tone he wields like a rapier in his often whiplash interchanges with his partners. On the other hand, Holst’s affecting tone in the last movement Lento can break your heart. Anthony Pini’s claim to fame still rests with his famed Elgar Cello Concerto made in collaboration with Eduard van Beinum. The directness of attack, the boldness of the thematic statements, will surely suggest the later realizations by the Beaux Arts Trio. The marcato of the Andante moderato proceeds, via some energetic twangs, to a glassy, crystalline Allegretto scherzando that shimmers and swaggers at once. Lovely burnished tone from cello Pini. Typical of Dvorak, the latter movements intimate his “and so my children” epilogue that moralizes all wonderful folk tales. Kentner’s facile runs, followed by non-legato passagework, testify to a pair of deft hands, capable of power and plastic inflections. Great musicianship...
Dvorak
wrote his 'Dumky' Trio through the winter of 1890-91, and is his best-known
use of the 'dumka', a Ukrainian lament, which had already featured in
a piano piece of that name in 1876, as well as forming part of his Slavonic
Dances, String Sextet, String Quartet in E flat and Piano Quintet
in A. The general form is of a melancholy first section which alternates
with a lively
second second, and the Dumky Trio, in six movements set out in this way,
uses a wide variety of keys to provide further contrast, rather than varying
the form.
This wonderful
wartime recording manages to capture perfectly this contrast - the opening
lament in the cello, picked up by the violin, is heaving with tragedy
and pathos, and yet the players skip effortlessly into the jig-like contrasting
section, which they attack with a verve and wit that is to be heard throughout
this recording.
Kentner,
Holst and Pini's interpretation, which appears to have been ignored since
its deletion from the Columbia 78rpm catalogue around 1950 (much to the
disappointment of the critics of the day, who rightly referred to it as
a 'splendid performance') is surely one of the great lost treasures of
the shellac era. It is both a pleasure and a privilege to have it back!
Find
out more:
1st
& 2nd movements: 1. Lento maestoso - Allegro quasi
Doppio movimento
2. Poco adagio - Vivace non troppo
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