Shop Now

The Chronicle Review Corner

This is the debut album from Quebec-based Trio de l’Île, a young ensemble comprising Uliana Drugova (violin), Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy (cello) and Patil Harboyan (piano) and features a mix of Argentinian and Armenian music from three composers, two of whom were new to us. Gayané Chebotaryan (1918- 1998) was influenced by a life-long fascination for the polyphony of Armenian music. Arno Babadjanian (1921-1983) is considered to be one of the most important Soviet Armenian composers, his style influenced by Armenian folk music, classical music, and Soviet and American popular music. His trio for piano, violin and cello in F sharp minor is called “a hidden gem of 20th century chamber music” in the sleeve notes. Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) defied the traditional view of the tango and transformed the genre, inventing nuevo tango, and was the only one we’d come across.

Enough biography. We must confess we listened to this several times before reading the sleeve notes, and Armenia never sprang to mind. On the other hand, Piazzolla’s piece, Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (1960) was obviously influenced by (and in turn influenced) the tango and suggested (in a pleasant way) the mood for the album, the kind of genteel and polite music you’d get in a posh European tearoom should you have called in for a brew in about 1928. Chebotaryan’s Piano Trio opens, the shortest work at 8:24 and it’s initially powerful and ominous, the violin reminiscent of the funeral march; it livens up. “Melodious and melancholic” the sleeve notes call it. Babadjanian’s hidden gem follows and is gentler; the opening section is rather lovely, though too high on the violin to be drippy and bland. The second movement is much livelier, the piano and strings working together aggressively; in places it’s even jolly. Piazzolla’s piece is his take on the Four Seasons, and it also opens in a lively fashion. The piece is presented in the same order as Vivaldi’s music (spring onwards) but Wikipedia reports that he wrote them in the order summer, winter, spring, autumn and various people have tinkered with this sequence ever since. Tango nuevo incorporates jazz, and Piazzolla added new instruments including sax and electric guitar, clearly absent from this piano trio, and without knowing it you’d be pushed to say this was tango, more modern classical music with some tango-y moments. It’s an interesting if melancholic album, and if you like music that evokes an era and atmosphere, it’s well worth a listen