Zemlinsky, Rachmaninov, Arensky – CD

This recording by the Smetana Trio presents piano trios by Alexander Zemlinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov and Anton Arensky, performed by Jitka echov, Radim Kresta and Jan Plenek. Although the three works were written within just four years, they represent three different musical worlds. Arenskys Piano Trio evokes the atmosphere of 19th-century bourgeois salons, where music was performed for the enjoyment of convivial company. Zemlinskys work, written when he was twenty-five, reflects the emergence of a search for new sounds and harmonies. Rachmaninovs one-movement trio, composed when he was nineteen, is filled with the noble elegiac quality characteristic of the later work of this pianist and composer. Arenskys short life was marked by mental illness, while external circumstances affected Zemlinsky and Rachmaninov, both of whom died in the United States a year apart, far from their homeland. With their characteristic temperament and commitment, the internationally acclaimed Smetana Trio presents three remarkable compositions from the close of the 19th century.