20th century German Works for String Trio

PAUL BÜTTNER (1870-1943): Trio Sonata, HEINZ SCHUBERT (1908-1945): Chamber Sonata, REINHARD SCHWARTZ-SCHILLING (1904-1985): String Trio, BACH/MOZART: 3 Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier, K 404a.

Description: Büttner wrote his Trio Sonata in canonic form around 1930, and these seven miniatures not only radiate musical joy, but also present an unheard-of variety of characters and moods in their own unmistakable language. They are recorded here for the first time, as well as the big, 21-minute Chamber Sonata that Heinz Schubert composed in 1934. Schubert, who was killed in the Volkssturm on the Eastern Front shortly before the end of the war, wrote a work that is incomparable in its gigantic challenge and irresistable crossing of apparent boundaries of polyphonic complex three-part harmony. Stylistically influenced by the polyphony of his teacher Heinrich Kaminski, based on Bach, late Beethoven and Bruckner and overflowing the barlines, he created a hymnic-ecstatic music of absolute timelessness. The program concludes with the late String Trio of 1983 by Schwarz-Schilling, once Kaminski's closest student. In two movements of rhapsodic freedom of form and refined, fragile introspection, Schwarz-Schilling draws a confident balance of a long life as a composer, shaken by the world wars and ideological trench warfare of the 20th century. Trio Montserrat.