Belle et beau

First trained as a pianist by her father, then by Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda and Clara Schumann, the Rheinberger pupil Luise Adolpha Le Beau, who was born in Rastatt in 1850 and died in Baden-Baden in 1927, left behind a versatile and extensive oeuvre as a composer. Her complete works for piano were published in two volumes by Schott (ED 8262 and 8263) by the Bernese pianist and music teacher Madeleine Stucki. It is again musicians teaching in Bern who have now recorded chamber music masterpieces by the German late Romantic composer for the first time.

The violinist Bartek Nizioł from Szczecin and the Ukrainian cellist Denis Severin teach at the Bern University of the Arts, as does the Russian pianist Tatiana Korsunskaya, who also works at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. They combine their Slavic expressiveness with a musical temperament to create a passionate style of playing that matches the energetic and relaxed, lyrical music of Luise Adolpha Le Beau.

The Piano Trio in D minor op. 15, composed in 1877, leaves the strongest impression in terms of content and interpretation. While the influence of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy still shines through in the opening Allegro con fuoco movement and the slow movement - in the style of a song without words - with its passionately moving middle section, the wonderfully transparent Scherzo and the unconventional finale in sonata form with a fugal introduction sound much more personal. The violin sonata in C minor op. 10 and the sonata in D major op. 17 for cello and piano, recommended by Niels W. Gade and Carl Reinecke as an "enrichment of literature worthy of publication", are also characterized by vivid thematic development and formal balance.