Catalogue

Summary:

“The playing throughout is simply exquisite. Recommended with all possible enthusiasm.” – Gramophone (Editor’s Choice, October 2018)

“The Briggs Trio responds to the style with enormous affection, following the mood changes from passionate to witty with eagle ears, and it sounds as if they have been living with the music for a long time.” – BBC Music magazine

Continuing AVIE’s acclaimed and influential series of recordings of the music of Austrian émigré Hans Gál, this latest release brings together two of today’s most eminent Gál interpreters, Sarah Beth Briggs and Kenneth Woods with violin virtuoso David Juritz for a recording of Gál’s breathtakingly lyrical Piano Trio in E major and his witty Variations on a Popular Viennese Tune. Gál’s music and destiny was shaped by war and political upheaval, as was that of Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Piano Trio in E minor, one of the monuments of 20th century chamber music, is a harrowing souvenir of the times in which it was written.

Tracklist:

HANS GÁL (1890–1987)

Piano Trio in E, Op. 18 (28.41)
1. I. Tranquillo ma con moto (11.58)
2. II. Allegro violento (5.42)
3. III. Adagio mesto (11.01)

4.Variationen über eine Wiener Heurigenmelodie, Op. 9 (7.10)
(Variations on a Popular Viennese Tune)

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975)

Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (27.08)
5. I. Andante (7.36)
6. II. Allegro con brio (3.05)
7. III. Largo (5.15)
8. IV. Allegretto (11.12)

Total time: 63.05

Briggs Piano Trio
Sarah Beth Briggs, piano
David Juritz, violin
Kenneth Woods, cello

Recording: 11–13 March 2018, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, UK
Recording produced, engineered and edited by Simon Fox-Gál