Unsung String Trios with Trio Montserrat on Aldilà Records

[Rainolf]

Aldilà Records is a Munich based label focussing on the presentation of great musicians of past and present times as well as on promoting unsung masterworks. It is led by Christoph Schlüren, conductor, music pedagogue, and one of Germany's most distinguished writers on music.

The programmes of Aldilà's CDs regularly show how the different aspects, on which the label focusses, come together. You will often find CDs dedicated to special performers, on which unsung works are presented along with well known pieces to show how good they can stand together with each other in terms of quality. Most CDs contain works of different composers, often from different times, with a special idea in the background on which the programme is built. There is, for example, a double CD by Hugo Schuler, an Argentinian pianist with a special talent for polyphonic music. Here Bach's Goldberg Variations and three Preludes and Fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier are combined with pieces of contrapuntal art from different times: a Fantasia by Froberger, and works by Heinrich Kaminski and Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling.

One of the next CDs, the publication of which is scheduled for February, will deal with the genre of String Trio. The Trio Montserrat (Joel Bardolet, Violin; Miquel Córdoba, Viola; Bruno Hurtado, Cello) will play Mozart's famous Divertimento, and then follow the path into the 20th century. Friends of Paul Büttner maybe will be interested in the next piece, Büttner's Trio Sonata, which shows this great late romantic symphonist as a master of canonic writing in the tradition of his teacher Felix Draeseke. The programme is finished by Trios of Heinz Schubert and Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, both recurring on Bach's art of contrapuntal writing from the background of late romantic expressiveness.

The Youtube channel of Aldilà Records contains videos from the rehearsal sessions for this new CD, in which some movements of the pieces can be heard in full. You can get vivid impressions, too, of the Trio Montserrat's formidable musicianship and Christoph Schlüren's profound work as a chamber music coach (the sessions were made in English language):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHdzLpiL6Yldrnz5_Z196kg

[Rainolf]

Update and correction:

The CD "German Counterpoint" was published meanwhile. It contains not Mozart's Divertimento but his string trio arrangement of three fugues from Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier with slow introductions composed by Mozart himself. So the program is:

Bach/Mozart
Adagio and Fugue BWV 853
Adagio and Fugue BWV 583
Adagio and Fugue BWV 882

Paul Büttner (1870-1943)
Trio Sonata (Canons with inversions in invertible counterpoint in the 12th) (ca. 1930)

Heinz Schubert (1908-1945)
Chamber Sonata (1934-37)

Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling (1904-1985)
String Trio (1983)

Playing by Trio Montserrat is incredibly fine. Highly recommended!

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/trio-montserrat-german-counterpoint/hnum/10387222

[eschiss1]

Thanks. Büttner seems interesting on the basis of his symphonies and string quartet...
Re Bach/Mozart, I seem to recall that there is some dispute whether Mozart actually made those arrangements, though it would make sense (given his increased interest in JS Bach due to van Swieten.)

[Double-A]

Bach/Mozart:  The fugues are arrangements.  The preceding adagios are not.  They are composed by the arranger of the fugues. Having played them I would be very surprised to find that they are not by Mozart.