Shostakovich - Arensky - Mendelssohn

Album review

Three young musicians playing three young composers’ trios with piano. It’s Trio Zeliha’s debut album and it’s a masterpiece. Violinist Manon Galy, cellist Maxime Quenesson and pianist Jorge González Buajasan all have plenty of experience playing the grand masters’ works, both solo and in trio. They’ve also received encouragement and endorsements from the great Menahem Pressler. There’s a great deal of talent between them and their strong personalities complement and bounce off one another.

Shostakovich composed Piano Trio No. 1 in C Minor in 1923 when he was 17 years old. You can already hear his signature style coming through with his sarcastic, abrasive harmonies. He reused one of the themes the following year in First Symphony, never turning his back on his early works. Known for his famous – and somewhat overplayed – waltzes, Anton Arensky’s personality really shines through in Trio in D minor. The work was written in 1894 in remembrance of the cellist Karl Davidov who founded the Russian cello school, much like Tchaikovsky had done a few years earlier when he composed a memorial trio for his friend and mentor Nicolai Rubinstein. Arensky’s long beautiful trio depicts the life of his late friend with an expressiveness that the three young musicians take to new heights.

Mendelssohn also uses the D minor key in his First Trio. Though instead of communicating tragedy, it conveys a wildly romantic appetite for life. The Trio Zeliha add light and dark shades to this frenzy while never losing sight of form and elegance. In addition to the three amazing musicians, the quality of the sound recording is worth mentioning. With a tasteful texture and a spicy flavour, it does absolute justice to the youthful enthusiasm of the works and their performers. © François Hudry/Qobuz