Customer Reviews

Foote: Piano Trios 1 & 2/Melody/Ballade

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4 star:		(1)
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Once again, I am indebted to Naxos for unearthing more great American composers than you can shake seven dollars at. Never before Naxos had I heard of Arthur Foote and I am greatful for the three CD's so far released of his chamber music. Not only am I a huge fan of Romantic era music, but of chamber music as well. This third release of his chamber music does not disappoint. The two Piano Trios and the two works for piano & violin are clearly the inspiration of other Romantic giants, such as Dvorak, Brahms, and Schumann. But as the reviewer for ClassicsToday.com stated, Foote is no wannabe. He most assuredly has his own voice and knows the difference between plagarism and being inspired by another composer.
If you are looking for excellent late Romantic chamber works, you can't go wrong with any of Arthur Foote's music. Enjoy!

I am a senior at Arthur Foote's alma mater (Harvard) and I find that his music wonderfully captures the spirit of New England in its simplicity, directness, and tunefulness. These works are extremely well performed--the pianist is very sensitive, particularly to the beautifully undulating lines of the first trio in c minor. The second trio is much more sharply "New England" in style, with its somewhat angular melodies and crisp rhythms. Reminds me of a spring day in the Boston Public Garden. How can the old Yankee temperment not appear in Foote? He was a native of Salem, MA, the descendant of sea captains, and the son of the publisher of the Salem paper.

Foote's style is indebted to European models, yet I firmly believe that its character is pure 19th century Boston. If you are looking for the music of the era and cultural climate of Henry Adams, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Charles Eliot, then this is your music. The most appropriate visual complement to this music is Commonwealth Avenue in Boston's Back Bay-- an impeccabbly preserved area lined with 1870's and 1880's Victorian brownstones and mansions and shaded by large trees in the center of the boulevard. While this music hardly blazes new trails, it stands very well on its own and well-represents the "Athens of America" that Boston has always striven for. Clearly, Boston was much more conservative in its musical tastes than New York City, and would ultimately lose its strong musical influence. However, Foote represents the best of the Boston Classicists, and is well worth exploring for its historical and cultural merits as well as its musical ones.

Also, the price is right.

I have all 3 volumes of Arthur Foote's chamber music on Naxos, and consider all three to be wonderful, but this disc is the best of the three.
Foote's music was not groundbreaking, radical or new, but what he did, he did well. The result, classical music that will delight people who want a classical music experience, but might leave a few cold-hearted modernists bored. For the rest of us, from start to finish this is a delightful disc.
The performances are imeccable, and the recording is clear. At the bargain price it is an absolute steal.

I have to disagree with one of the previous reviewers. While I find the recording to have some odd properties apparently due to the way it was engineered (some heavy reverb, a few artifacts), the intonation is really fine. It is not "out of tune" though there are a few spots in the finale of the first piano trio where the intonation is not perfect. Otherwise, it is a lovely recording of truly wonderful music that needs far more exposure and appreciation. Thank you, Mr. Foote. You deserve better recognition and this recording does a wonderful service to you.

I have all 3 volumes of Arthur Foote's chamber music on Naxos, and consider all three to be wonderful, but this disc is the best of the three.
Foote's music was not groundbreaking, radical or new, but what he did, he did well. The result, classical music that will delight people who want a classical music experience, but might leave a few cold-hearted modernists bored. For the rest of us, from start to finish this is a delightful disc.
The performances are imeccable, and the recording is clear.

If you think that Brahms's chamber music idiom has legs, then the Trio No. 1 by Arthur Foote is for you. It has the stateliness and some of the drama of Brahms, though ultimately it emerges a more smiling and sunny creation than the German master ever seems to create in the key of C minor. The scherzo, for example, is a light-footed piece that bespeaks American rather than Germanic roots, though Foote was schooled after the best German models by America's first important symphonist, John Knowles Paine.

The Trio No. 2, likewise, is an entertaining amalgam of Germanic and American music making. The bumptious melody of the first movement, with its dotted rhythms, is clearly an American invention, but the sweeping romanticism of the whole also recalls the young Richard Strauss of the chamber music phase, as does the restless first melody of the finale. But whatever its provenance, what a lovely melody the second one, introduced by the piano, is! The coda memorably recalls the dotted rhythms of the first movement. This is a more assured and confident work than the First Trio and one that should be in the repertory of just about every American piano trio.

The melody and ballade are nice works, too, if much less meaty.

The three players involved do this ravishing music proud, and be assured that the sound here is all one could hope for: intimate yet open and airy, with great truthfulness. Certainly this CD is one of finest, if not the finest, chamber music entries in Naxos' American Classics series.

This is Vol. 3 of Foote's Chamber Music, mainly two wonderfully listenable 'Piano Trios' performed & recorded beautifully; Foote did not train in Europe like many other American composers of this and a later era, but European Romanticism (Brahms & Dvorak) is evident. Others have already provided excellent comments, so no need to repeat here. This recording received a superlative review in Fanfare Magazine & also a 10/10 rating on ClassicsToday (check their website) - there is absolutely no problem w/ the sound recording (listening right now to the disc on a good set of speakers) - if you have not delved into the New England school of American composing & enjoy chamber music, then this would be a good start and at a great price (and I'm certain that you'll likely buy the other 2 volumes in the series, which I also own!).

An indispensable release by Naxos of the much-neglected piano trios of Foote, but horrendously recorded and poorly performed. The sound is gratingly metallic and harsh, almost unlistenable, and the playing out-of-tune. What a waste of fascinating music! One feels cheated. Hopefully, these works will find better exponents eventually.

[Running time: 66:01]