Celebrating the 20th birthday of TRIO JEAN PAUL

“Whoever dares to deal with Schubert inevitably embarks on a borderline experience. Time stretches to the uttermost, almost beyond human measure. The music, in essence, tells us about our own lives, but it seems to be pointing beyond life’s limits. Here we have life in full bud, bursting to the fullest; daring explorations and danceable élan coexist with otherworldly beauty and rapturous contemplation. All of this is held together by an infallible instinct for formal balance, and that well-known “Schubert tone” that every rendition attempts to achieve; the greatest of joys is getting it right. …….

And Schubert, just like Mahler, uses mere “notes” to create an entire world, a universe made up of differentiated tonal areas and constellations of keys, all held together by the fundamental energy of leitmotifs. Schubert was evidently familiar with Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart’s essay on the characteristics of keys, published in 1806 in Vienna in his book “Ideas Towards an Aesthetic of Musical Art ” (my heartfelt thanks to Prof. Elmar Budde for having pointed this out). Once you are familiar with Schubert’s musical language, the chosen keys offer some hints for interpretation. E Flat Major, for instance, “the key of love, of religious devotion, of intimate conversation with God”, was certainly not chosen at random, and the same applies to the composer’s frequent excursions into far-lying key areas. When at the end of this trio [in E flat major] the inner, ecstatic glow of E Flat Major emerges from a previous passage in E Minor, we grasp its meaning more intensely when we know that E Minor stood for “impending hope

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A Co-Production with WDR mediagroup GMBH; Booklet 16 pp, de; Bio; Liner Notes de Available: from 29 November 2011; Release (G/A): 20 January 2012