An ethereal touch with Dumont’s Trio Elegiaque
Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano.
Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.
Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.
You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:
“Portraitures and caricatures: Conductors, Pianist, Composers”
here.
When young French pianist François Dumont appeared at the Salle Gaveau in Paris recently, the critics embraced him without reserve. One wrote that his recital confirmed his place in the family of the best musicians in France. Another said his Ravel produced dreamy colors (where) brio and poetry converge.
Dumont is making his mark. He maintains a busy concert schedule and produces a prodigious stream of CDs. A new disc of his Chopin is due for launch in February. An earlier Chopin recording reveals his mastery of the oeuvre.
I have just received an advance copy of his two-CD Schubert Complete Works for Piano Trio performed by his Trio Elégiaque??. I can barely take it in. I am still recovering from the impact of Elégiaque?s recent Beethovens Complete Piano Trios.
The new Schubert deserves a close hearing to appreciate Dumonts ethereal touch, his rich tone, sensitive articulation, his sweeping arpeggios and his expert coordination with violinist Philippe Aïche and cellist Virginie Constant. The effect of these Schubert trios is transporting, nothing less.
https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/schubert-notturno-complete-works-for-piano-trio-trio-elegiaque/3770004972203#item
Was it hubris or chutzpah that prompted the Elégiaque? threesome to come up against similar recordings by Ashkenazy-Zukerman-Harrell and Serkin-Busch-Busch and several others? Whatever their thinking, the time has arrived for this fresh new version, delightful in every way.
Playing the Schubert trios is one of the greatest satisfactions a musician can have, Dumont told me some months ago in an interview*, shortly after the recording of the trios was completed. But they are also extremely demanding for the three players
pleasure and pain together.
The set (from Academy Productions AP732), denominated for its most interesting piece, Notturno D. 897, covers all of Schuberts piano trio output. The Notturno in E-flat major D. 28 ties it together.
The Notturno has an uncertain place in Schuberts life work. Musicologists believe it was discarded after being tried out as the slow movement for his B-flat trio, Op. 99, D. 898, included in this album. But it stands alone easily as a coherent piece, opening with a series of rolling chords and a lovely duet with violin and cello. One Schubert specialist has written that the Notturno is not as well known as it should be. Dumont and friends may help fill this lapsus.
Dumonts principal teacher, William Grant Naboré, founder of the International PIano Academy on Lake Como, Italy, wrote in program notes that the Notturno was Schuberts first foray into writing for piano and strings. Schuberts work in general is filled with song and dance qualities that his aficianados loved and venerated, Naboré wrote. This was part of his DNA.
The playing in these CDs is exemplary for combining the entire arc of the trios, which span Schuberts life from the early years at as a law student. Taken together, they display Schuberts musical development in his ensemble writing.
Schubert wrote only two complete piano trios and two movements for piano trios. The four-movement Trio in B flat op. 99, D. 898, which opens this album, is notable for its charming, adventurous and inventive melodies and its rondo finale.
The Sonatensatz in B flat, D. 28, dates from 1812, when Schubert was only 15. One Schubert scholar supposes that like many of (his) compositions, he probably got tired of writing it, put it aside to return to some time in the future (but) never did so.
*The full interview with Dumont can be accessed here:François Dumont interviewed: The music never stops
Below a portrait of François Dumont ?by the writer, Michael Johnson.
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