These works for piano trio by Polish composers have been almost absent from concert programmes and recordings so far, and this new release from DUX aims to bring these works back to listeners and concert halls around the world. The works are performed here by the Apeiron Trio: Hanna Lizinkiewicz (piano); Piotr Kosarga (violin); Jan Czaja (cello).
The Rhapsody, Op. 33 by Ludomir R?zycki (1883 - 1953) was created during the composer's stay in Berlin. The composer dedicated the Rhapsody to its first performers, members of an excellent Berlin piano trio: Bronislaw von Pozniak (piano), Hugo Kortschak (violin), and Heinz Beyer (cello), who performed its world premiere on 11 November 1913 in Berlin. R?zycki's Rhapsody is a one-movement piece with a free, multi-section structure, but retaining connections with the sonata-allegro form, and influences of both Gypsy-Hungarian music, and German modernism can be found within.
The Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 2 by Henryk Melcer (1869?1928), completed in 1895, was created during the composer's stay in Vienna. In the Antoni Rubinstein Competition organized in 1895 in Berlin, the Trio was awarded the Grand Prix in the category Compositions, while the Concerto won the first prize; moreover, Melcer received the third prize in the field of performance.
Romance. Duettino by Antoni Stolpe (1851?1872) is the earliest of the pieces presented on the album. The Romance is a charming miniature of a salon nature, thought as a violin and cello duo accompanied by the piano. The small structure of the piece takes the form of a genre scene, in which two voices are invited to a musical dialogue.
Six Bagatelles, Op. 5 by Mikolaj Piotr G?recki (*1971) from 1997 are the only contemporary look at the piano trio on this list, but only seemingly distant from the rest of the pieces. The composer's musical language refers to the music of the past. Like in works of the romantic spirit, it is also here that expression plays an important role; it comes to the fore in the Bagatelles, filtered through the 20th-century musical achievements.
