Albert Roussel - Trio for Flute, Viola and Cello, op. 40 [With score]

-Composer: Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937)
-Performers: Paul Verhey (flute), Henk Guittart (viola), Herre-Jan Stegenga (cello)

Trio pour flûte, alto et violoncelle, op. 40, written in 1929

00:00 - I. Allegro grazioso
04:46 - II. Andante
10:04 - III. Allegro non troppo

Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge -- that intrepid patroness whose generosity called forth works from the most distinctive composers of her era (e.g., Stravinsky, Bartók, Dallapiccola, Pizzetti, Prokofiev, et al.) -- Roussel's Trio for Flute, Violin, and Cello was composed in a mere 15 days in September 1929. Given the prominence of the flute, it bears a similar relation to the Sérénade for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Harp (1925) that his Third Symphony (1929-1930) bears to the Fourth (1934); in both pairs Roussel's final manner enables him to return to a mood or vision whose exuberance has been pared, chastened, and, perhaps, wizened. For so fastidious a composer it would not do to repeat himself, and there is a palpable gain in refinement and concentration in both the Fourth Symphony and the Flute Trio, rippled by an airy grace and leaping vitality that look back to the earlier works, but with an autumnal cast and, in the Flute Trio, a mellowed sweetness eschewing their coruscations and sophisticated primitivism. Classical is the term applied by most commentators to this shrinkage, and it is, indeed, a classic case, so to speak, in which -- for the connoisseur, at least -- less is more, though one may prefer the striking audacities of the earlier works. Still, there is no denying the Trio's concise elegance. Of the first movement, Allegro grazioso, Norman Demuth noted, "The writing is a model of terseness in its contrapuntal moments and is an excellent model. The resources of each instrument are fully exploited and the flute is taken as a perfectly serious entity in the ensemble." The flute is, indeed, primus inter pares, though in the second movement Andante, after a long-breathed melody -- neither grave nor gay but prolix and eldritch -- it allows the viola and cello to come into their own in a slowly coiling utterance that can seem mere note-spinning in a slack performance, but given with requisite tautness looks with chaste eyes into a demesne purged of passion. In the chirpy third movement Allegro non troppo, the flute regains its prominence in a motoric, cheerfully mocking, spritely utterance whose scintillance seems almost too polite, or, as Demuth said, "There is not the thought in this movement which is characteristic of the other two...." Dedicated to Mrs. Coolidge, the Trio's premiere was given by Georges Barrère, flute; Lionel Tertis, viola; and Hans Kindler, cello, on October 30, 1929, in Paris at a Concert Coolidge chez Institute international de cooperation intellectual.
description: [allmusic.com]