From Birmingham
THE ‘ NORRIS STANLEY ' TRIO : NORRIS STANLEY (Violin), O . LAMPE (Violoncello),
ARTHUR WOODALL (Pianoforte)
MOST of the last-century Russian Composers were ardent ' ‘Nationalists.’ but Arensky is an exception. His is largely cosmopolitan music, tuneful, graceful, and easily enjoyed at the first hearing.
His Trio in D Minor contains four Movements, of which the FIRST is lively, graceful, and occasionally forceful, working up to some strong climaxes.
The SECOND is a vivacious Scherzo, at full speed, with a middle section in quieter mood.
The THIRD is a slow Movement, entitled Elegy. The FINALE surpasses in energy the First
Movement. In the middle of it there is a lull, and, in slower time, we have a reminiscence of the melody heard at the opening of the work. Then the brilliant stylo is resumed, and the piece flashes on to its conclusion with arpeggios from the Piano and chords from the Strings.
TARTINI, that great eighteenth-century Violinist, had a somewhat disturbed youth, for he was driven from his native Padua on account of a secret marriage. He took refuge at a monastery at Assisi, worked hard at fiddling, and when he could safely return to Padua, built up a noted school of violin playing.
He wrote some eighteen Concertos and fifty or sixty Violin Sonatas. Perhaps the most famous of these last is the ' Devil's Trill' Sonata, said to have been composed after a dream in which the Devil, having entered into a compact to serve the composer, played him a marvellous solo on the Violin-a solo which Tartini. on waking, tried in vain to recall. The ' Devil's Trill ' Sonata embodies some of his impressions of the strange visitation-so the tale runs.