Italian Piano Trios

[mikehopf]

Gosh! Talk about music to swoon to!

Two piano trios played by the ArTre Trio on the Phoenix label:

Anzoletti ( 1867-1929) & Raffaello Lazzari ( 1845-1924).

If the first movement of the Anzoletti trio doesn't get you; nothing will.

[Simon]

There is a preliminary catalog of instrumental works by Anzoletti available online, with some biographical informations as well:

https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/17766/1425814.PDF?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

[mikehopf]

Thanks for the info.

Anzoletti's Violin Concerto Op.30 ( 1903) goes to the top of my wish list.

[Alan Howe]

Two piano trios played by the ArTre Trio on the Phoenix label

Thanks for pointing this out. It would be helpful, though, if a link to details about the recording could be included - if possible with audio samples.

Here's a link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anzoletti-lazzari-Sebastiano-Battarino-Marcello/dp/B00H8EVJW4

[Mark Thomas]

The Anzoletti Piano Trio is a real charmer, I do agree.

[jerfilm]

Both works can be heard on Spotify.

J

[westham]

Thanks for pointing this out.  They are indeed delightful works.  Has anyone seen anything that resembles liner notes or even a catalogue number?

[eschiss1]

According to Worldcat, Anzoletti wrote something like a dozen piano trios in manuscript it seems.  Autograph manuscripts of the E minor (1893 August 3), G minor (1899 April), E-flat major (1905 Mar. 12), F major (1901 May 26), another in G minor (1903), G major (1893 July 14), F-sharp minor (1908), others, at Biblioteca Comunale di Trento... some other trios with horn... They do have at least one A major trio of his too (the key of the work on the Phoenix disc).

[eschiss1]

Here's a longish biography of Anzoletti (in Italian) - Treccani

[Alan Howe]

Talking about something long-ish, I note that the Anzelotti trio in the recording takes 46 minutes. So, does it sustain its length?

[Mark Thomas]

The short answer is no, but that's down to the opening movement which, at almost 19 minutes, is way too long for its material. It's marked Moderato and that's certainly the pace at which the ArTre Trio take it. I have no idea what the metronome marking is, but I have the feeling that the movement would benefit from a general and substantial speed up. Even then, Anzoletti stretches his admittedly attractive material very thin, and an edit down to around 10 minutes would have improved this movement greatly and balanced the overall composition. The slow movement (marked Moderato again, but more like Adagio or even Larghetto here), Scherzo and Finale don't suffer from these compositional or interpretive problems at all. Overall, the Trio is an attractive piece, but you do have to be patient with the first movement.

[Alan Howe]

I wondered whether this might be the case. If it's charming, I thought, 25 minutes would be better than 45 because the merely charming quickly becomes rather boring; if it's 45, the composer would have to be a genius...