Fauré; Pierné – Trios avec piano
Trio Wanderer
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902192
Here are two piano trios that belong in anyone’s strings-and-piano chamber music collection! One surprise: I have always found the technically challenging finale of the Fauré Trio, Op.120 problematic on account of its quirky, off-balance character. But Trio Wanderer turns this into a positive quality by emphasizing it rather than smoothing it over, with spiky accents and precise articulation that never interfere with overall fluency. In the wonderful Andantino they capture both the sentiment of the opening melody and the probing character of motivic development and harmonic exploration that follows. Both in this and the opening movement, I found myself moving from admiration of the elegance and clarity of playing to appreciation of subtle effects of light and shade, the nuances that make Fauré’s music such a delight when well-performed.
The Trio, Op.45 by Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937) is the strongest work I have heard by this composer. The extended opening movement seems to receive its energy from an enigmatic, syncopated figure in the piano, which grows and changes in myriad ways. Pierné’s palette is darker than Fauré’s, with thicker sonorities and dynamics ranging from fortissimo climaxes to whispering string harmonics. Trio Wanderer is adept in this dramatic style, and equally so in the dance style of the bouncy middle movement, influenced by the Basque zortzico. A highly inventive theme and variations featuring amazing fingered harmonics on the violin rounds off the work.
