Rachmaninov: Elegiac Piano Trios 1 & 2 Trio Portici

• 1 Lento lugubre 14:56
• 2 Moderato 06:04
• 3 I. Moderato 19:51
• 4 II. Quasi variazione 20:07
• 5 III. Allegro risoluto 07:48
• Total Runtime 01:08:46

Info for Rachmaninov: Elegiac Piano Trios 1 & 2

After many concert performances, the Belgian musicians of the Trio Portici decided to record the two rarely recorded but beautiful Elegiac Trios by Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov was not yet twenty when he composed his first Elegiac trio. This work, one movement with twelve successive episodes, has the structure of a classical sonata, despite its musical form. The piano evokes the death bells and fills the sonoric space while the strings resound melodiously. In the second trio, there is a more fascinating playing together, the style is more personal, the writing is more daring and more elaborated as if the composer felt the look of his illustrious predecessor and wanted to submit an explanation before him. The somber nostalgic atmosphere, leaning towards the tragic and, even now and then brightened up by a magic melody, is the same in both works. In the same nostalgic atmosphere, this recording is completed with an elegy for piano solo.

Stéphane De May, piano
Damien Pardoen, violin
Luc Tooten, cello

The Trio Portici
was set up to commemorate Belgium’s 175th year of independence and takes its name from Daniel Esprit Auber’s The Mute Girl of Portici. During a performance of this opera at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, in August 1830, a riot broke out that became the signal for the revolution that led to Belgian independence.

The members of the trio are Stéphane De May, teacher at the Conservatory of Rotterdam and Leuven, Damien Pardoen, violinist in the Luxemburg Philharmonic Orchestra and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Liège and Luc Tooten, first solo cellist of the Brussels Philharmonic.

Their first CD in 2005 was César Frank’s piano trio’s Opus 1, (numbers 1 and 2). Following a positive reaction from the international press, the trio reached an agreement with the Pavane label. Since then five more CDs have been produced, with chamber music from Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Franz Schubert and George Onslow.

The Trio Portici have performed for the Flemish Festival, the Walloon Festival and during important cultural celebrations in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and China. These concerts were praised by critics for their musicality, technical perfection, creative inspiration and instrumental control.

Since the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year, the Trio Portici have been Musicians in Residence at the Catholic University in Leuven; this grants them the honor of performing for all the university’s cultural, educational and ceremonial events. Damien Pardoen plays a violin built in Cremona in 1694 by Francesco Ruggieri and Luc Tooten a cello made in Naples in 1705 by Alessandro Gagliano.

Booklet for Rachmaninov: Elegiac Piano Trios 1 & 2