LEONID SABANEYEV (1881-1968): Trio-Impromptu, Op. 4, Sonata for Piano Trio, Op. 20.

Description: One of the many Soviet avant-garde composers who were either repressed by Stalinism or who emigrated only be ingnored in his various subsequent countries of residence (Sabaneyev did the latter), Sabaneyev had been an influentical critic, author, musicologist and adminstrator. He wrote comparatively little but these two trios from 1907 and 1924 are strikingly original and memorable. The later one is a 36-minute work suffused with a sense of inescapable doom and horror. Much of its action takes place in the lowest registers of all three instruments, its tonal palette gloomy and ominous, darkly swirling sound masses brutally suppressing the occastional ethereal effusions until all collapses in apocalypse at the end. The shorter, earlier trio has the high-strung volatility and expressionistic angst of late Scriabin and seems to be anticipating the coming European dislocations as much as the later trio seems a reaction to them. Ilona Then-Bergh (violin), Wen-Sinn Yang (cello), Michael Schäfer (piano).