BaL 23.02.13 - Mozart's Divertimento for String Trio K563

[verismissimo]

Another Grumiax here. And the only time I heard it live was the Lindsays (less Ronnie Birks) at Blackheath.

BTW I'd happily add the Beethoven string trios to ferney's very short shortlist.

[Thropplenoggin]

Hermitage String Trio (Chandos)...impeccable playing, lovely warm, detailed recording and you get a couple of the 'fugues with slow preludes' thrown in, too.

[Julien Sorel]

More recently picked up the Archibudelli version in Witney Oxfam on a scratched CD, now repaired. It's a very nice alternative, in sonority and interpretetation.

My only version is L'Archibudelli - it's a lovely work, but I've always found that completely satisfying as a performance. You also get two preludes and fugues after Bach (W.F.) and Bach (J.S.). (Their recordings of the Beethoven string trios are excellent, too.)

[french frank]

Crumbs! One of life's coincidences - coincidentally I played it last night (and then played it again ). My version the apparently 'temporarily' unavailable one by the Smithson String Quartet, reviewed here, a very good recommendation by the newly rearrived M. Sorel (thanks Jools).

[Julien Sorel]

Crumbs! One of life's coincidences - coincidentally I played it last night (and then played it again ). My version the apparently 'temporarily' unavailable one by the Smithson String Quartet, reviewed here, a very good recommendation by the newly rearrived M. Sorel (thanks Jools).

Which reminds me I do have another recording of K563 . How embarrassing. Very good it is, too: I'll give it a listen around lunchtime .

[LeMartinPecheur]

Another Grumiax here. And the only time I heard it live was the Lindsays (less Ronnie Birks) at Blackheath.

BTW I'd happily add the Beethoven string trios to ferney's very short shortlist.

ferney may be echoing Hans Keller who IIRC pronounced that the string trio was inherently a very flawed medium with only two true masterpieces, K563 and the Schoenberg. I'm still trying to work out how the Beethovens can be so confidently dismissed!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

ferney may be echoing Hans Keller who IIRC pronounced that the string trio was inherently a very flawed medium with only two true masterpieces, K563 and the Schoenberg. I'm still trying to work out how the Beethovens can be so confidently dismissed!

I may have been, but not knowingly - I don't consider the medium at all "flawed": there are superb works from outside the Austro-German tradition (Xenakis and Brian wotsisname, for example) that also demonstrate what magnificent Music can be written for it. Like LMP, I also happily listen to the Beethoven trios ('tho' thinking about it, I haven't done so in far too long a time ) and, yes thay are, of course, masterpieces. Up there with Mozart and Schoenberg?

Now, if you'd told me off about neglecting Webern's Op 20 ...

[french frank]

ferney may be echoing Hans Keller who IIRC pronounced that the string trio was inherently a very flawed medium

I wonder what the argument for that was? I confess to having some difficulty with the piano in trios, quartets and quintets.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I wonder what the argument for that was? I confess to having some difficulty with the piano in trios, quartets and quintets.

It was all a long time ago and it's possible that what I'm recalling is him saying that the str trio medium is just extremely difficult to bring off. I guess the main problem is the need to squeeze four-note chords from just three instruments?

[Julien Sorel]

I may have been, but not knowingly - I don't consider the medium at all "flawed": there are superb works from outside the Austro-German tradition (Xenakis and Brian wotsisname, for example) that also demonstrate what magnificent Music can be written for it. Like LMP, I also happily listen to the Beethoven trios ('tho' thinking about it, I haven't done so in far too long a time ) and, yes thay are, of course, masterpieces. Up there with Mozart and Schoenberg?

Now, if you'd told me off about neglecting Webern's Op 20 ...

Also Helmut Lachenmann (1965) and Jonathan Harvey (2005).

[verismissimo]

I confess to having some difficulty with the piano in trios, quartets and quintets.

I think one problem is the use of the modern Steinway and equivalents, creating a totally different balance from the one that nineteenth century composers would have expected.

A couple of years ago I had the Adderbury Ensemble play the Dvorak quintet in our local church, using our restored 1870 Broadwood grand. Talking with the string players afterwards, one of them said that it was the first time he had ever heard himself in that piece...

[EdgeleyRob]

BTW I'd happily add the Beethoven string trios to ferney's very short shortlist.

I would also include this beautiful piece.

[amateur51]

A piece I don't think I know at all (maybe I'll recognise it...). Looking forward to having my eyes opened...

I must 'fess up, I don't know it either but having listened to the Grumiaux I can feel it rapidly becoming a favourite - how marvellous at 61

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I would also include this beautiful piece.

A lovely piece (I so prefer Moeran's chamber Music to his orchestral works) - but my "very short shortlist" specified the Austro-German tradition.

[Acavus]

I have grown up with and love the Grumiaux trio's version of K563, but I recently bought the Zimmerman trio on Bis. Not only is it a superb performance but it is one of the best-sounding chamber music discs I own, especially in SACD mode - it is as if they are in the room with you!