Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio E Minor, Op. 90 »Dumky«
Arthur Foote: Piano Trio, Op. 5
In this coupling of Dvořak’s legendary Dumky Trio and Arthur William Foote’s Piano Trio in C minor, the Trio Deja Vu succeeds in drawing a stimulating connection between European and American chamber music. A passionate and exciting trans-Atlantic dialogue!
“This splendid recording brings together two works from the same era, composed for vastly different socio-cultural milieus. They afford us a marvelous glimpse into the rich musical diversity present at the end of the nineteenth century, and are brilliantly performed by the Trio Deja Vu. A wonderfully executed coupling.”
5 stars for repertoire, sound and interpretation.
ensemble – magazine for chamber music, Edition 3/2010
Trio Deja Vu
Maciej Szyrner, piano
Konstanze Felber, violin
Gabriel Faur, violoncello
Arthur Foote
Klaviertrio op. 5
Allegro con brio
Allegro vivace
Adagio molto
Allegro comodo
Antonín Dvořák
Klaviertrio op. 90 »Dumky«
Dumka 1 – Lento maestoso
Dumka 2 – Poco adagio
Dumka 3 – Andante
Dumka 4 – Andante moderato quasi tempo di Marcia
Dumka 5 – Allegro
Dumka 6 – Lento maestoso
English booklet enclosed (20 pages) / German booklet enclosed
Total recording time: 62:00 | Format: 1 Audio-CD
Recording: 8/2009 – Harmonie Heilbronn, Germany
(p) & (c) SPEKTRAL 2012 | Series SPEKTRAL CLASSICS
Order No.: SRL4-12104 | GTIN (EAN): 4260130381042
The Trio Deja Vu was founded in 2006 by two players from the renowned Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn – the young violinist Konstanze Felber from Munich and the young cellist Gabriel Faur, who was born in Bucharest. The Polish pianist Maciej Szyrner completed the trio after the initial decision had been made to focus on chamber music.
The trio’s principal ambition is to publicly present lesser known masterpieces of unjustly neglected composers. Since their inception, they have given many concerts, and these, without exception, have been most enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike. “One would like to hear more from this very promising ensemble in the years to come,” wrote the Frankfurter Neue Presse.
The ensemble has become a frequent guest at various well-known festivals and concert series such as the Weilburger Schlosskonzerte, Ottobeurer Konzerte, Hohenloher Kultursommer, Rosetti-Festtage im Ries, the Music Festival in Stuttgart, and others.
Further information: www.triodejavu.com
Maciej Szyrner was born in Posen, Poland. He received his first piano lessons at the age of six, and studied in Posen, Bromberg and Trossingen with Tatiana Shebanova, Gabriel Amiras and Victor Merzhanov. He attended masterclasses with Vladimir Kreinev, Andrzej Jasinski, Lee Kum Sing, and Amadeus Webersinke. Szyrner is a regular guest with Polish orchestras such as the Sinfonia Varsovia, and was the winner of the third International Paderewski Competition in Bromberg, Poland. He has made recordings for Polish Radio in addition to having several CDs to his credit.
Konstanze Felber was born in Starnberg, Germany and began violin lessons at seven. She studied with Gottfried Schneider in Munich and with Joshua Epstein in Saarbrücken. Further artistic development came through her work with renowned figures like Kurt Sassmannshaus, Lewis Kaplan, Aaron Rosand and Ulf Hoelscher. In 2003, she won the first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition “Città di Minerbio” near Bologna, Italy. Since 2004, she has held the position of principal second violin with the Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn.
Gabriel Faur, born in Bucharest, Romania, was given his first cello lessons by his father when he was eight, and later went on to study with Mikhail Khomitser in Tel-Aviv. In 1997 he began working with Adalbert Skocic and the renowned Altenberg Trio in Vienna. Further studies followed with Radu Aldulescu at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, and with Lynn Harrell in Lübeck. Faur has won prizes in several international cello competitions, including David Popper (Hungary), Johannes Brahms (Austria), and Gaspar Cassado (Spain). He has been principal cellist with the Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn since 2005.
Interview with Gabriel Faur, cellist
In founding an ensemble, the search for a distinct sound is of great importance, as is the interpretation and the search for interesting repertoire. How would the recently formed Trio Deja Vu rate these three aspects? What is the most important?
All three aspects are equally important. As far as the sound of our ensemble is concerned, we certainly do not follow the fashionable trend of recent years which emphasizes a more edgy and aggressive quality rather than beauty of tone. In seeking out repertoire, the Trio Deja Vu looks for rare works by composers who in our opinion are unjustly forgotten or neglected, and can enrich the chamber music repertoire with works that are off the beaten path. Nonetheless, a commitment to the great standard works of the trio literature, presented in well prepared and convincing interpretations, is still of fundamental general importance to the continued health of our musical culture. For a start, the score represents a riddle that is only revealed and discovered through the common input of each player; it is the starting point of an interpretation that emerges gradually over time. In the final analysis, though, it is the ideas that arise spontaneously in performance that will mark our interpretations as distinct from all others.
In your debut CD, the Dumky Trio by Dvorak is paired with a piano trio by the American composer Arthur William Foote. What prompted this choice?
In our ongoing search for unjustly neglected works by lesser known masters, we discovered the piano trio by Foote and were immediately taken by this passionate work. At the same time, for our debut CD we wanted more than anything to record the Dumky Trio, which for us is one of the greatest and grandest works in the genre. Everyone who is familiar with the New World Symphony and the American String Quartet knows that Dvorak had an especially close relationship with America. It is much less well-known that in the same time period, there existed an independent school of composers in America, and Arthur Foote is a good example of this school. Although this thoroughly American composer was obviously influenced by nineteenth century European composers, probably including Dvorak himself, Foote’s music nonetheless has its own unmistakable and noteworthy features.
From your perspective, how much attention is paid to the American music tradition in the international repertoire? And how does this relate to your desire to make lesser known works accessible to the public once again?
Generally speaking, the music of nineteenth-century American composers does not play a significant roll in international concert life, at least certainly not in Europe, although the situation is different when we consider twentieth-century composers. With the first European recording of a piano trio by Arthur Foote, which certainly qualifies as a rare work in the trio literature, we would like to show that, above all, the American music by composers from the Second New England School is worthy of more attention than it is accorded at this time. This expectation is not unjustified. In our concerts, the Trio is without exception enthusiastically received by the public.
