ERMANNO WOLF-FERARRI (1876-1948): Piano Trios No. 1 in D, Op. 5 and No. 2 in F Sharp, Op. 7.

Description: The two trios are early works, written at the time the composer was studying in Munich, or shortly afterwards. The first (39 minutes and four movements) dates back to 1896 and abounds in richly embroidered, Brahmsian melodies and impassioned statements and developments but also embody a certain innocence, a degree of gentleness, even a lightness of spirit that sets them apart from late Romantic German models. Parts of the second trio (30 minutes and three movements) may have been written before the first, but the expression as a whole is more individual, dominated as it is by a huge opening movement (almost 20 minutes in length), and often colored by a bitter chromaticism that Wolf-Ferrari would later relinquish in favor of a more light-hearted and lyrical idiom. Trio Archè.