Clara Schumann & Rebecca Clarke: Piano Trios Trio Rigamonti

• Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896): Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17:
• 1 Schumann: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17: I. Allegro Moderato 11:18
• 2 Schumann: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17: II. Scherzo. Tempo di menuetto - Trio 05:10
• 3 Schumann: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17: III. Andante 05:14
• 4 Schumann: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17: IV. Allegretto 08:01
• Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979): Piano Trio:
• 5 Clarke: Piano Trio: I. Moderato ma Appassionato 09:54
• 6 Clarke: Piano Trio: II. Andante molto Semplice 06:50
• 7 Clarke: Piano Trio: III. Allegro Vigoroso 08:43
• Total Runtime 55:10

Info for Clara Schumann & Rebecca Clarke: Piano Trios

This pair of piano trios has become recognised in recent years as among the finest works by their composers, and they make a complementary pairing despite their contrasting idioms. This new recording also makes a fine showcase for a trio of Italian siblings who have won many prizes in chamber-music competitions and give recitals across Italy as Trio Rigamonti.

Completed in 1846, the G minor Piano Trio of Clara Schumann thus postdates her early piano pieces by decades, and is accordingly a much more mature and accomplished work. She handles the piano-trio dynamic with great skill, balancing her piano part against the strings with sensitivity, and the whole piece is shot through with a pathos that bears comparison with contemporary works by both her husband and her friend Brahms.

While there is no shortage of light and shade to the second theme of the first movement and the playful central Scherzo, the expressive pull of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio draws the listener towards the piano’s deeply felt introduction to the slow movement, which achieves remarkable pathos within its relatively brief duration. The turbulent finale skilfully balances the scale of the first movement, and the whole piece ranks among the most satisfying of 19th-century piano trios.

Its counterpart in the early years of the 20th century, hardly less rewarding a contribution to the piano-trio literature than contemporary works by Ravel and Rachmaninoff, is the Piano Trio composed in 1921 by Rebecca Clarke. The angst of Clara’s finale is answered and intensified by a gripping confrontation at the start of Clarke’s Trio, which does not so much subside as simmer throughout the first movement. The central Andante flows like a free-running brook and yet is achingly lyrical, before the Allegro vigoroso finale spins the listener through a whirling kaleidoscope of music past and future. These trios make a natural pairing in concert and on record and yet they are still too rarely heard, but Trio Rigamonti are passionate advocates.

Trio Rigamonti

Trio Rigamonti
The creation of Trio Rigamonti stemmed from the desire of the three siblings Miriam, Mariella, and Emanuele to dedicate their lives to chamber music and to share with others their sensitivity and their mutual complicity, which goes beyond their professional relationship.

In 2022 the Trio won the second prize (first not assigned) at the Ysaye International Music Competition in Liège, performing in the Main Hall of the Université and in the stunning Salle Philharmonique, and it was among the prize winners of the International A. Rubinstein Chamber Music Competition in Düsseldorf.

Among their most recent national and international recognitions: price as the best italian ensemble at the first edition of Filippo Nicosia International Chamber Music Competition in Faenza, first prize at the Carlo Maria Giulini International Chamber Music Competition 2021 in Bolzano and at the 14° Cameristi dell'Alpe Adria International Chamber Music Competition in Udine. They were also named Ensemble of the year 2020-21 for Le Dimore del Quartetto, getting a scholarship from Fondazione Morosini of Milano, and received the Young Talent Award 2022 from Universum International Academy Switzerland.

​Having been active for more than nine years, they have appeared in various prestigious festivals and concert series, such as Sagra Musicale Umbra and Amici della Musica in Perugia, Società dei Concerti in Trieste, Viotti Festival in Vercelli, Società dei Concerti in Parma, Festival della Piana del Cavaliere, Chamber Music Festival of Rovinj (Croazia), Chamber Music Festival of Lugano (Swiss), Società Umanitaria in Milano, Amici della Musica in Padova, Festival Carniarmonie, Autunno Musicale in Caserta, Musica al Tempio in Milano (where they performed Beethoven Triple Concerto), Teatro Sociale in Como, Conservatorio C. Monteverdi in Bolzano, Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona, Conservatoriumzaal Amare in Den Haag, Espace M. Fleuret in Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris and Metallener Saal at Wien Musikverein.

The Rigamonti siblings founded the trio in 2012 while studying at the Conservatorio G. Verdi of Como in the class of F. Valli and P. Beschi. They obtained a second-level master’s degree cum laude in Chamber Music at the Conservatorio A. Boito of Parma, under the guidance of Trio di Parma and P. Maurizzi. In 2020 they were accepted at the Stauffer Center for Strings, in the class of the Quartetto di Cremona. There, they had the chance to perform Schubert’s Trio op. 100 for A. Brendel.

They attended masterclasses and lessons with many outstanding musical personalities, like Atos Trio, L. Hagen (Hagen Quartet), K. Zlotnikov (Jerusalem Quartet), T. Abel (Cuarteto Casals), I. Golan, A. Lucchesini, A. Valentino.

Recently the Trio was appointed aspiring ensemble at the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), receiving advice from H. Beyerle, J. Meissl and P. Jüdt.

Mariella and Emanuele play two Italian instruments from the beginning of the twentieth century: a G. Pedrazzini violin and G. Sgarabotto cello.

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