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Piano Trio No. 2 in B minor, Op. 76
Joaquín Turina

- Born December 9, 1882, in Seville
- Died January 14, 1949, in Madrid
- Composed in 1932–33
- Duration: 13 minutes

In 1907, Manuel de Falla moved to Paris, joining two Spanish musicians who already made their home there: Joaquín Turina, a young composer originally from Seville, and Isaac Albéniz, a member of the previous generation who mentored numerous Spanish and French composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After Falla arrived, the three of them got together in a bar in Paris to discuss the future of Spanish art music, a meeting Turina would later recall with some degree of pride: “We were gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight bravely for the national music of our country.”

The three of them resolved to compose “música española con vistas a Europa”—Spanish music with an eye to Europe. Albéniz died of kidney disease two years later, so it fell largely to Falla and Turina to carry out this mission. The two younger composers were friends, but their musical training and priorities in Paris were quite different. Whereas Falla studied with the impressionists of the Paris Conservatoire like Debussy, Turina worked with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum. The Schola involved rigorous training in composing technique, from Renaissance counterpoint to Classical structure, though it was sometimes criticized for emphasizing these studies at the expense of fostering creativity. This training seemed to have boosted Turina’s “eye to Europe” in his compositions. He produced a large amount of music for standard chamber ensembles over the following decades, works that constantly grapple with the challenge of balancing influences.

He wrote his second Piano Trio (Op. 76) between 1932 and 1933, shortly after he was appointed professor at the Madrid Conservatory. In the first movement, the strings play a burning, Romantic melody. The Schola Cantorum’s love of César Franck was ever present in the work of Turina all these years after he completed his studies. But the second theme, undoubtedly structured in a 19th-century style, has many trappings of the harmonic language of Maurice Ravel and others from 1920s Paris. An extended Lento passage, which complicates the formal trajectory of the movement, brings questioning, dissonant chords in the piano and an ethereal duet for the strings that floats along until the fiery music of the opening makes a dramatic return. 

The 5/8 double-note scherzo that follows is undoubtedly indebted to the final movement of Ravel’s String Quartet, but where that earlier music is vigorous and aggressive, this is invitingly pastoral. A momentary trio section is simply an echo of the central Lento of the previous movement, before a return to the spritely Ravel allusion. The third and final movement displays the freewheeling thematic mixing and matching that had become the hallmark of Turina’s large-scale works. It involves a review of tempos and themes from the first movement, but it also introduces some new melodies. Turina patiently builds toward a simplified version of the music heard in the scherzo, a transformation that brings the work to an uplifting and hopeful final flourish.

Piano Trio No. 2 in B minor, Op. 76
Joaquín Turina

- Born December 9, 1882, in Seville
- Died January 14, 1949, in Madrid
- Composed in 1932–33
- Duration: 13 minutes

In 1907, Manuel de Falla moved to Paris, joining two Spanish musicians who already made their home there: Joaquín Turina, a young composer originally from Seville, and Isaac Albéniz, a member of the previous generation who mentored numerous Spanish and French composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After Falla arrived, the three of them got together in a bar in Paris to discuss the future of Spanish art music, a meeting Turina would later recall with some degree of pride: “We were gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight bravely for the national music of our country.”

The three of them resolved to compose “música española con vistas a Europa”—Spanish music with an eye to Europe. Albéniz died of kidney disease two years later, so it fell largely to Falla and Turina to carry out this mission. The two younger composers were friends, but their musical training and priorities in Paris were quite different. Whereas Falla studied with the impressionists of the Paris Conservatoire like Debussy, Turina worked with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum. The Schola involved rigorous training in composing technique, from Renaissance counterpoint to Classical structure, though it was sometimes criticized for emphasizing these studies at the expense of fostering creativity. This training seemed to have boosted Turina’s “eye to Europe” in his compositions. He produced a large amount of music for standard chamber ensembles over the following decades, works that constantly grapple with the challenge of balancing influences.

He wrote his second Piano Trio (Op. 76) between 1932 and 1933, shortly after he was appointed professor at the Madrid Conservatory. In the first movement, the strings play a burning, Romantic melody. The Schola Cantorum’s love of César Franck was ever present in the work of Turina all these years after he completed his studies. But the second theme, undoubtedly structured in a 19th-century style, has many trappings of the harmonic language of Maurice Ravel and others from 1920s Paris. An extended Lento passage, which complicates the formal trajectory of the movement, brings questioning, dissonant chords in the piano and an ethereal duet for the strings that floats along until the fiery music of the opening makes a dramatic return. 

The 5/8 double-note scherzo that follows is undoubtedly indebted to the final movement of Ravel’s String Quartet, but where that earlier music is vigorous and aggressive, this is invitingly pastoral. A momentary trio section is simply an echo of the central Lento of the previous movement, before a return to the spritely Ravel allusion. The third and final movement displays the freewheeling thematic mixing and matching that had become the hallmark of Turina’s large-scale works. It involves a review of tempos and themes from the first movement, but it also introduces some new melodies. Turina patiently builds toward a simplified version of the music heard in the scherzo, a transformation that brings the work to an uplifting and hopeful final flourish.