Review
Eduard Steuermann's piano trio transcription of Verklärte Nacht is an altogether unusual achievement. It shows few traces of the compromises ordinarily entailed in the process of transferring music conceived in one medium to an entirely different instrumental guise. The fit is impressive, the character preserved whole. I'm convinced that, had Steuermann's 1932 arrangement gotten properly out in the world when it was new, it would be well inside the present boundaries of standard repertoire for the ensemble of violin, cello, and piano. As it happened, however, the transcription never got out of the hands of the pianist for whom Steuermann did the work, and remained completely unknown, possibly even to Arnold Schönberg, who died before it was returned to Steuermann's possession by pianist Alice Moller in Israel, in 1952. Nor was the transcription published until fifteen years after Steuermann's death, by Margun Music in Newton Center, Massachusetts, in 1979. So as far I can tell, the Ravinia Trio recording is only the second to be made. The first came from Clementi Trio in Köln, whose 1987 Largo CD received an entirely approving notice from me in Fanfare 12/3. Both ensembles are audibily commited to their work, making the most of the rich yet paradoxically transparent properties of the transcription, which seems in this respect to improve upon the string sextet original scoring. With pianists of the right kind, the music doesn't even change much in its color values. There is good reason to advocate the acquisition of both Largo's CD and the present Divox production, as the couplings are different yet apposite. In the matter of tonal opulence, integral to the music, the Ravinia Trio has a slight edge over the Clementis; the only drawback I can hear is occasional awkwardness in making transitions, a little risk-taking that doesn't altogether pay off. The Clementi Trio is more secure at these junctures, and elsewhere is slightly more expansive than the Ravinias, who like to press forward. The call is too close to be made unequivocally. Everybody plays in time. As a perfomer, pianist Steuermann was closely allied all his life with the composers of the Second Viennese School. It can't be much of a suprise, then, to find in his own 1954 piano trio a good deal of music and atmosphere akin to all that earlier work. But Steuermann's outlook is broader than one might expect, taking in elements of harmony reminiscent of Brahms, and of counterpoint of a sort one finds in Reger. The single movement, five-segment form owes something to Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie No. 1, intermingling Lisztian free fantasy and continuous variation with long developmental stretches which pursue sonata ideas. Steuermann's motifs are clearly discernible, quite memorable enough to grasp and recall, and therefore to follow through a process lasting just twenty-three minutes. The twelve-tonery is of a mild and seemingly relaxed sort, not even hexachordally organized, with plenty of harmonic passages right on the border of traditional fundtionality. Sections of fantasy and strictness succeed each other with ever-increasing dispatch and heightening tension, right up to a sharply evaporative ending. For 1954, when a set of thoroughly envenomed post-Weberians occupied all positions of influence in musical Europe, this trio is a distinctly conservative production. For those who lived through the Boulezshchina, it's downright easy listening. I find this work more involving than the wandering and watery Brahmsism of Alexander Zemlinsky's op. 3 Trio, which is the coupling of the Clementi Trio. Divox's recording, a cooperation between Swiss Radio and WDR in Köln is vivid and fullbodied, with unusually firm sense of instrumental placement. One forgives relatively short timing in view of the high quality of program, performance, and sound. The Ravinia Trio, another....... --Fanfare
Product Description
While Schoenberg possibly chose the sextet scoring as an extension of the string quartet and as a reflection of its fundamentally more symphonic than chamber-music lay-out, his later arrangement for string orchestra was only logical. It is in this form that the work found widespread dissemination and recognition in the great concert halls of the world. By contrast, Eduard Steuermann's arrangement for piano trio is more akin to the sextet version. It owes its compellingness to its phenomenal transparency and vital, inimitable sound. Through it might seem absurd to transcribe for piano trio - a fundamentally different sound constellation - a work that relies as heavily on the homogeneous string ensemble sound as Verklärte Nacht, the result is perfectly legitimate. The piano trio arrangement brings out all its details in crystalline purity, but without making it lose any of its expressive eloquence or coloristic edge. Steuermann made his arrangement in 1932 for a private performance, possibly without Schoenberg's knowledge.
