Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
Trio pour hautbois, clarinette et basson

Sándor Veress (1907-1992)
Sonatine pour hautbois, clarinette et basson

Paul Juon (1872-1940)
Arabesque pour hautbois, clarinette et basson

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Divertissement pour hautbois, clarinette et basson

Trio Trilli

Paolo Beltramini, clarinette
Massimiliano Salmi, hautbois
Diego Chenna, basson

Voilà, dès l’intitulé, une irrésistible force attractive qui aura le même magnétisme sur tous les mélomanes amoureux du timbre des instruments à anche, finalement d ‘ailleurs pas tant exploités en formation réduite si on les compare à leurs congénères à cordes. Et à l’écoute de ce trio fait d’un hautbois, d’un basson et d’une clarinette, aucune déception, mieux, le plaisir est, dès les premières notes entièrement, confirmé. La sonorité féline, saillante douce, puissante et vraie, envoûte. Le programme démarre avec Lutoslawski dont la science de l’écriture confirme son statut de compositeur majeur du siècle dernier. Cela continue avec une sonatine de Sandor Veress, une arabesque de Paul Juon et un divertissement d’Erwin Schulhoof qui nous livrent dans la même lignée de superbes pages impressionnistes, gorgées d’un immédiat plaisir déconcertant. Un plaidoyer hédoniste pour nos seigneurs à anche, dont la sonorité porte aussi la ferveur des fêtes populaires d’autrefois. (Jérôme Leclair)

An original quartet of 20th-century wind trios, uniquely coupled on record and performed by an ensemble of distinguished Italian musicians who have worked with many of the world’s great orchestras. The combination of oboe, clarinet and bassoon attracted several French composers in the first half of the last century and inspired witty and elegant divertissements from the likes of Ibert, Francaix and Poulenc. But the character of the trio held an appeal to composers farther afield, as this album shows, and that appeal was by no means confined to ‘light music’, even if all the music on this album – from Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary – shares a lightness and airiness of texture. The composers from eastern Europe – Lutoslawski, Schulhoff and Veress – all suffered under totalitarian regimes, and Schulhoff died at the hands of the Nazis, but their painful histories do not cast a long shadow over the pieces on this album. In fact, the origins of Lutoslawski’s Trio are found precisely in the exercises of counterpoint he realized in the winter of 1944-5, when he had been forced to flee Warsaw, together with his mother, following the consequences of the Warsaw Rising. The Trio is a quirky, restlessly experimental work, as the composer later explained: ‘I was trying to find my bearings in the world of free tonality. […] I chose wind instruments because my research into pitch, rhythm and the organisation of sound could be carried out in the simplest way with their help.’ The wind trio as laboratory also held appeal to Sandor Veress, who found a very personal synthesis of his own research into Hungarian folksong with the 12-tone theories of the Second Viennese School. The outer movements of his Sonatina abound in the madcap humour of his compatriot Ligeti, while the central Andante introduces a gravely memorable theme on the bassoon. Schulhoff’s Divertissement is naturally the most French-sounding work on the album, a set of seven compact character sketches including a Charleston (No.4) and ‘Florida’ (No.6). Known in some quarters as the ‘Russian Brahms’ from the country of his birth, Paul Juon is the least-known figure here, but not the least accomplished, and his Arabesque is a substantial, four-movement structure launched in fine style by Commodo movement with echoes of Nielsen at his breeziest, followed by a lilting Larghetto, a Minuet that parodies 18th-century manners, and a dashing finale with a more reflective interlude.