Robert Kahn; Vincent d'Indy - Trios for Piano, Clarinet & Cello (Bawandi Trio)

Information

Composer: Robert Kahn; Vincent d'Indy

• Kahn - Clarinet Trio in G Minor, Op. 45
• Indy - Clarinet Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 29

Bawandi Trio

Mario Häring, piano

Patrick Hollich, clarinet

Alexandre Castro-Balbi, cello

Date: 2023

Label: CPO
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/robert-kahn-klarinettentrio-g-moll-op-45/hnum/11173725

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Review

Requesting this CD was something of an experiment. Anyone who has read more than a couple of my reviews has very likely encountered a comment about violin timbre, and what we have here is my favourite genre – the piano trio – with the violin swapped out for the clarinet, an instrument much less likely to become harsh and wiry under pressure. 

Robert Kahn was a protégée of Brahms, and thus his composition of a clarinet trio is not especially surprising. Indeed, it was Richard Mühlfeld, for whom Brahms wrote his clarinet chamber works, who premiered the work (along with Kahn and cellist Robert Hausmann). I commented in a review of Kahn’s chamber music for piano and strings earlier this year that he had a gift for melody, and that is in evidence here as well. The swirling elegiac theme in the slow movement, to pick just one example, is quite lovely. The opening Allegro is the weak link in the work, and I urge you to be patient, for the other two are very good, the closing Presto alternately brooding and sparkling.

I very much enjoy the orchestral music of Vincent d’Indy, and while I had made the acquaintance of some of his chamber music, the Clarinet Trio was new to me. Set in four movements, it is less traditional than the Kahn, despite being written eighteen years earlier. At over thirty-five minutes, it is a substantial work, the Ouverture running to more than fourteen. It is a measure of d’Indy’s compositional qualities that the time passes very quickly. The second (Divertissement) and fourth (Final) movements are witty and elegant and very French. In between, there is an hypnotic slow movement (Chant Elégiaque).

The notes are typical of the label: informative, but inclined to hyperbole at times. They are rather more abbreviated than usual, however: commentary on the composers and works runs to a little more than a page, whereas photos of the performers occupy five. The sound quality is fine, and the relatively limited comparative listening I did (a Decca anthology with clarinettist Daniel Ottensamer) suggests the Bawandi’s performances are very good; they are somewhat slower than the Decca versions, but not to their detriment. The notes remained silent on the source of the name of the trio, which suggested something African to me, but the three players are European and, by their photos, Caucasian.

So what of my experiment? I enjoyed both works, especially the d’Indy, but I don’t think that my hypothesis really panned out. At times, particularly in the Kahn, the very different colouring of the clarinet occasionally made it stand out too much from the other instruments, leading to less of a conversation and more of a solo with accompaniment. 

If you are an aficionado of this grouping of instruments, then I’m sure you will thoroughly enjoy this CD. 

-  David Barker, MusicWeb International

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Robert Kahn (21 July 1865 – 29 May 1951) was a German composer, pianist and teacher. He studied at the Königlichen Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, and with Joseph Rheinberger in Munich. Kahn composed a vast quantity of chamber music, writing in an intimate, lyrical style that is reminiscent of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. His music were almost entirely forgotten after World War II, but are being rediscovered by musicians and audiences. As a teacher, Kahn trained some of the best-known musicians of the 20th century, such as Arthur Rubinstein, Wilhelm Kempff, Ferdinand Leitner, and Nikos Skalkottas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kahn_(composer)

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Vincent d'Indy (27 March 1851 – 2 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. He was a student of César Franck at the Conservatoire de Paris. Inspired by his own studies with Franck and dissatisfied with the standard of teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris, d'Indy, together with Charles Bordes and Alexandre Guilmant, founded the Schola Cantorum de Paris in 1894. His students included Isaac Albéniz, Arthur Honegger, Albéric Magnard, Darius Milhaud, Albert Roussel, Erik Satie and many more. As a composer, d'Indy's best known works are probably his Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français and Istar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_d'Indy

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Bawandi Trio

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