Trio Voce

Inscapes

Jasmine Lin, violin
Marina Hoover, cello
Patricia Tao, piano

$14.99

"...Trio Voce play(s) every bar of the Weinberg for everything it’s worth..." --Gramophone

Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Piano Trio, Op. 24: 1. Präludium und Arie; 2. Toccata; 3. Poem; 4. Finale
5. Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio, No. 2, Op. 67: 6. Andante; 7. Allegro non troppo; 8. Largo; 9. Allegretto; time - 73:43

Inscapes

Two trios by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75), the towering giant of Soviet music, and the trio by his friend and admirer, Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-96), poignantly convey the life experience of these two composers. Inscape, a term coined by the poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, refers to an object's essential character, its unique inner nature. The works collected here provide access to such essential, inner landscapes. Both composers' music speaks in such a way that one senses an emotional soundscape, unique but dynamic.

Born in Poland to a Jewish family, Mieczyslaw Weinberg (or Moyses Vaynberg) entered the conservatory at age 12. Graduating in 1939 just ahead of Hitler's invading army, he fled to Minsk, capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic, where Weinberg was encouraged to develop a "Jewish" national style. When the Nazis invaded Soviet territory, Weinberg fled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In 1943, Weinberg sent his first symphony to Shostakovich, who was impressed enough to arrange for Weinberg to move to Moscow where they very much remained a part of each other's lives and music-making.

Weinberg completed his Trio (op. 24) in 1943. This wartime masterpiece encompasses a range of expression reflecting the emotional essence of this Jewish refugee, now a citizen of the Soviet Union. The Prelude's majestic melody, buttressed by resounding strings, heralds a monumental journey. After the Prelude, the strings bridge to a sweet theme over an easeful piano, and the piano answers with a minor, faint version of the theme.

The brusque Toccata erupts in the piano, detached and aggressive. This percussive toccata becomes more regular as the violin sings an inflected, Jewish melody leading the primitive drive in the piano to frenzied exuberance.

The Poem is a pearl of expansive lyricism. A rhapsodic piano spins an improvisatory melody, and the material builds to a climax of hammered piano and wildly trilling strings. The melody of the introduction returns and the rhapsody closes the work.

Unfurling a melody filled with inquiry, the Finale starts with the violin introducing a rapid motive which soon sings a soaring variation of the piano's opening. The cello responds with a warmer rendition before the violin interrupts again. A fugal section follows, building to a climax interrupted by music from the trio's Prelude. The finale's opening theme returns in a dreamy rendition, finishing with a conversation between all instruments, subsiding as the piano tolls with quiet resolve. A chorale of religious intensity in the piano provides a moment of reflection, as the strings join the piano with their concluding thoughts.

Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 1 (op. 8, 1923) was written when the young composer was 17. Composition began in late summer 1923 while Shostakovich was convalescing in Crimea, where he fell in love with Tatyana Glivenko (the trio's dedicatee). It remained unpublished until after the composer's death, and for all its sentiment and romantic spirit, it is a taut, fresh composition.
The sighing cello melody over a gently pulsating piano is the heart of the work's thematic material. As the piano introduces chromatic gestures spaced over octaves, spinning into a playful melody, the material builds in emotional intensity and breaks off, time and again. After a sweeping passionate interlude, the music breaks off one last time as the cello restates the main theme over a rocking minor chord.

The rocking awakens in the Andante as background for a tender cello love song. This section explores both the sweetness and the tempestuousness latent in the melody. Returning to the variation of the opening, Shostakovich takes us through a mosaic from the work culminating in a rapturous rendition of the love song.

Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 (op. 67) composed in 1944 shows Shostakovich's skill at plumbing emotional vistas of harrowing intensity. The trio was composed under the cloud of tragedy: his beloved friend, musicologist Ivan Sollertinsky, died while composition was underway. Further darkening the mood, word had reached Moscow of the Nazi concentration camps, likely accounting for the inclusion of Jewish music in the final movement.

The Andante is dominated by sorrow, made more intense by unworldly sonorities. The canonic introduction begins with a thin melodic thread in high cello harmonics, followed by the muted violin tracing the emotionally charged melody. In contrast to the astral register of the strings, the piano enters with deep octaves providing immense gravity. The violin introduces a sweet tune from which emerges a descending motive, becoming an ironic down-bow gesture. The development builds to a climax from which soars the second theme high above an imploring piano which grows into a jubilant celebration of E major, but the music subsides uneasily with glassy E minor string chords over an insistent, nervous piano.

In bold contrast, the second movement launches into a grotesque waltz of the sort well known in Shostakovich. The boisterous melody unleashes a raucous stomping and whirling dance: when the tune repeats, a swooping, somewhat taunting gesture appears as emotional counterpoint to the grotesque.

Time stops in the third movement. With a profound sense of longing in this movement, chords in the piano lay the harmonic foundation for a chilling passacaglia. A lyrical song of Mahlerian compass is passed between violin and cello.

As if out of nowhere, the violin plucks a curious motive in the guise of a "Jewish" dance. The minor inflection of the popular Jewish music appealed to Shostakovich, who was probably inspired by Weinberg. Shostakovich once said of the Jewish musical spirit, "a cheerful melody is built here on sad intonations… Why does he sing a cheerful song? Because he is sad at heart."

In the fourth movement, music fluctuates between wild swagger and playful dance, at times with an ominous tinge. As the dance subsides, the strings articulate a hesitant version of the work's stark opening. The granite chords of the Largo return while the violin and cello soar above in high harmonics. The violin, then cello, declare a gently defiant restatement of the Jewish theme, coming to rest on a peaceful E major.

—Program notes by David Berg

Trio Voce

The three individuals of Trio Voce communicate as one voice ("voce" in Italian), whether they are performing the repertoire of Haydn or that of the present day. All three members, Jasmine Lin, Marina Hoover and Patricia Tao, are established musicians, who have studied with some of the great masters at schools such as Curtis, Yale and Harvard, have a demonstrated depth of experience as collaborators and as performers on the international stages throughout the world, and have championed recent music through commissions, premieres and recordings of works by living composers. Their touring has taken them to major venues in North America.

Chicago native Jasmine Lin has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras in the U.S. and overseas. She was a prizewinner in the International Paganini and Naumburg competitions. Ms. Lin has toured extensively with the Chicago String Quartet and she is a founding and current member of the Formosa Quartet, which won first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. Ms. Lin is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. She gave her New York debut in Merkin Hall, where the program included her poetry set to music. Her poem "The night of h's" received Editor's Choice Award from the International Poetry Foundation. Ms. Lin is also a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians and on the faculty at Roosevelt University.

Two-time Grammy nominee Marina Hoover was founding cellist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which won both the Young Concert Artists auditions and the Banff International Competition. In her 13 years with the St. Lawrence, Ms. Hoover performed at The White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, 92nd Street Y, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, and in over 1000 other appearances worldwide. In addition to her recordings with the SLSQ, Ms. Hoover recorded cello/piano works by Chopin, Strauss and Liszt on the Centaur label. Ms. Hoover studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and at Yale. She has been Artist-in-residence at Stanford University, the University of Toronto, and the Banff School and has taught chamber music at Northwestern University and the Chicago Institute of Music.

Pianist Patricia Tao leads an active life as performer, teacher and concert organizer. She toured throughout the U. S. and Europe as a founding member of the Guild Trio for ten years. As soloist, she toured for Columbia Artists' Community Concert series and overseas as an Artistic Ambassador for the USIA. With the Guild Trio, she commissioned and premiered works by William Bolcom, Sheila Silver, Harvey Sollberger, and others. She has recorded on the CRI, Arktos and Centaur labels. Ms. Tao received degrees from Harvard University, Indiana University, and her doctorate from Stony Brook University. She has taught at the University of Virginia and Western Washington University, and is currently Associate Professor of Music at the University of Alberta.

More information on these artists is available on the following websites: