Fanfare

Quebec-based Trio de L’Île, a superb young trio for piano, violin, and cello, here presents a highly compelling program of two relatively obscure mid-20th-century works with Armenian roots, plus a substantial work by Astor Piazzolla. The Piazzolla work, completed in 1960, is larger in scale than the ubiquitous short pieces that are often heard as encores in any number of formats. These are actually four distinct nuevo tangos masquerading as a four-movement work, in this piano trio arrangement of the original scoring of violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass, and bandoneon. The variety of tempos and melodic content of the tangos allows the grouping to work well as an apparently unified work.

Gayane Chebotaryan’s single-movement Piano Trio is heart on sleeve Romantic, in the manner of Rachmaninoff, but utterly honest and bursting with passion. Chebotaryan also infuses her music with Armenian folk traditions. This 1945 work was written early in her career, which was centered in Moscow, where she lived until her death in 1998. Arno Babadjanian was, roughly, her contemporary, and also Moscow-based. His trio is in a traditional three-movement format and is also, stylistically, a throwback. He had a gift for big-boned, rather melodramatic writing, much in the tradition of the most famous Armenian composer, Khachaturian. The Andante, in particular, is quite a romp, and Trio de L’Île brings it off with great panache, although I was surprised at the pace of the music given the tempo indication. While none of this music is especially challenging in any intellectual sense, it is all very well written and an easy pleasure to hear, especially given the exuberant and virtuosic performances.

—Peter Burwasser