TRIO ZIMBALIST

Piano Trios of Weinberg, Auerbach, & Dvořák

Josef Špaček, violin; Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, cello; George Xiaoyuan Fu, piano Curtis Studio PLAT21970 (WAV download). 2024. Drew Schlegel, prod. and eng.

PERFORMANCE SONICS

I understand the marketing idea, harnessing a “popular” score like the Dvořák to present newer material more demanding of audiences, as the Curtis-based Zimbalist Trio has done. The question, of course, is who will buy it? How many listeners curious about Lera Auerbach will want Dumky?

Weinberg and Auerbach share an angular aesthetic. The dissonances rarely turn abrasive; in Allegros, both composers share a penchant for moto perpetuo piano writing, Weinberg’s one-handed, Auerbach’s in octaves. The shadow of Shostakovich hangs powerfully over Weinberg’s emotionally ambivalent, folklorish piece, though he brings in a few novelties: As the Präludium of the Präludium and Aria seems to reach a definitive close, the sustaining violin takes things in a new direction. The composer frequently juxtaposes two of his five available timbres, treating string pizzicatos as separate “instruments.” The centerpiece of Auerbach’s score is its Andante, launched by a plaintive, broadly singing cello theme, the piano sprinkling single notes around. The violin’s lyrical entry turns bittersweet.

“Dumka” means “thoughts” in Slavic languages; each of the six Dumky sets off a ruminative section with livelier material—until the sixth reverses the order. The slow music isn’t all melancholy: elegiac and wistful in the second movement, cautiously optimistic in the third, veering to piercing sorrow in the fifth.

The Zimbalists have the measure of all these scores, though a few scratchy sounds escape both string players in Auerbach’s finale. They handle Dumky’s tempo changes with assurance and inject a nice friskiness into some of the quicker passages. The sound is vivid, though the perspective is closer than some prefer in chamber music.—Stephen Francis Vasta