BaL 23.02.13 - Mozart's Divertimento for String Trio K563

[Thropplenoggin]

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!

They've now recorded Beethoven's op.9 string trios for Bis now, too. Another stunner.

[Acavus]

They've now recorded Beethoven's op.9 string trios for Bis now, too. Another stunner.

Yes, their Beethoven Op. 9 is on my rather-too-long 'to-buy' list.

[french frank]

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...

Yes, I'll buy that as an explanation. I'd like to listen to a work, deliberately, with an older piano to see if it makes me think any differently. I do find the strings are competing rather than combining with a modern concert grand - but I imagine that wasn't what earlier composers were hearing.

[JFLL]

They've now recorded Beethoven's op.9 string trios for Bis now, too. Another stunner.

I've just acquired this, too -- superb performance and recording.

[verismissimo]

What pleasure to get to get to grips again with this neglected masterpiece. The adagio second movement is as good as anything Mozart wrote IMO.

And Grumiaux's trio play it superbly, he with intensity and some touching portamento (though less than they would have used 100 years ago).

I'm going to start a Portamento Restoration Society.

[Roehre]

...
I'm going to start a Portamento Restoration Society.

[JFLL]

And Grumiaux's trio play it superbly, he with intensity and some touching portamento (though less than they would have used 100 years ago).

I'm going to start a Portamento Restoration Society.

You can enrol me. I’ve an idea it’s more appreciated now (or less frowned on) than when I started listening to music. I remember Hilary Finch (I think) on the CD Review of the year in 2011 praising its discreet use in the Doric Quartet’s disc of the Schumann string quartets.

Could one say that it’s ‘authentic’ in performances of works written between, say Beethoven and WWII? (I’m guessing about this, and would be interested to hear what experts on performance practice think.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Portamento, like Vibrato, needs to be used very carefully in a piece of Music; it fell out of favour precisely because so many lazy performers splattered it into their whole performances like ketchup on a van burger, rather than practising a range of different degrees of portamento, judiciously tailored to the expressive requirements of the Music at its different stages.

I hope that any future PRS would sek to promote selective use of these different types of portamento in mind, rather than simply "restoring" "one size fits all" bad habits.




It's very much a sliding scale.

[verismissimo]

Portamento... It's very much a sliding scale.

[Thropplenoggin]

The smart money's on The Hermitage String Trio. 12-1.

[Nick Armstrong]

van Burger

Expect to see his little-known First Symphony in C# minor turn up on Suffolkcoastal's symphonic journey some day soon!

[BBMmk2]

I'll purposely be missing this BaL!!

[David-G]

9.30am Building a Library
Misha Donat with a survey of recordings of Mozart's Divertimento for String Trio K563

Available versions:-

L'Archibudelli
Arnold-Schoenberg-Trio
Budapest String Quartet
Chilingirian Quartet
Cummings String Trio
Christoph Ehrenfellner (violin), Herbert Müller (viola) & Adalbert Skocic (cello)
Joseph Fuchs (violin); Lillian Fuchs (viola) & Tortelier (cello)
Heifetz, Primrose, Feuermann
Gaede Trio
Grumiaux Trio
The Hermitage String Trio: Boris Garlitsky (violin), Alexander Zemtsov (viola) & Leonid Gorokhov (cello)
Henning Kraggerud, Lasr Anders Tomter, Christoph Richter
The Pasquier Trio
Benjamin Schmidt, Antoine Tamesit, Jan Vogler
Trio Echnaton
Trio Fenix: Shirly Laub (violin), Tony Nys (viola) & Karel Steylaerts (cello)
Trio Zimmermann
Zilliacus Persson Raitinen

There is another version, with the Florin Ensemble. http://www.florinensemble.co.uk/Listen.html

[verismissimo]

I'm going to start a Portamento Restoration Society.

"Heifetz's portamento may belong to a bygone age," says Misha Donat.

Not after the PRS is launched.

[Thropplenoggin]

The Hermitage String Trio will have to work hard to pull this out the bag...I don't think they've even been mentioned yet.