Richard Strauss - The Two Piano Trios

Richard Strauss

The Two Piano Trios

Monticello Trio

These youthful chamber works by Richard Strauss are not widely represented on disc,

and are filled with sparkling inventiveness and lyricism.

This disc juxtaposes Richard Strauss's two Piano Trios, composed in his early teens,

with a sequence of pieces for piano quartet, written for private performance at family get-togethers.

Written at the age of thirteen, his charming Piano Trio No. 1 in A follows the models of Mozart and Beethoven

it can also sound like Haydn until it reaches its finale, a swanky pastorale of considerable originality,

But the Piano Trio No. 2 of a year later ventures beyond these sophisticated foundations and steers closer to Schubert, echoing his melodic beauty.

The melody of the Leibesliedchen in G couldn't be by anyone else, but it's also hard to believe that the conservative harmonies are by a composer who had Don Juan under his belt. Strauss, though flamboyant in public,

clearly played it safe in family circles.

Nice performances from the American Monticello Trio viola player John Graham joins them for the quartets.

Not my rip, thanks to the original releaser!