# Piano Trios: Brahms vs Franck



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

For me this is a tough choice but I have to go for Franck. There is something that he does that drives each movement onto even more unbelievable passages. I find it hard to describe but each trio is just filled with tension and Franck manages to suspend a conclusion for as long as possible. For me I just find them more interesting than Brahms' trios, as good as Brahms' are.


----------



## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Since Franck's are not widely known (I presume?), you'll have to give us a record recommendation or two, beetzart, if you please!


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I did a double-take as I had never heard of any Franck piano trios. The best I can tell, there are only two recordings - the Pavane and Dynamic labels.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bulldog said:


> I did a double-take as I had never heard of any Franck piano trios. The best I can tell, there are only two recordings - the Pavane and Dynamic labels.


I have them on two Chandos CDs (Bekova sisters). Good stuff, but I still prefer Brahms.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

PS: I suppose we're talking about Cesar Franck. I also have piano trios by Eduard Franck and Richard Franck in my CD collection.


----------



## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Not heard one by Franck but do love the Brahms, especially the original one!

Mine is performed by

Joshua Bell
Steven Isserlis
Jeremy Denk 

from album

Fot the Love of Brahms


----------



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Art Rock said:


> PS: I suppose we're talking about Cesar Franck. I also have piano trios by Eduard Franck and Richard Franck in my CD collection.


Sorry, yes I did mean Cesar Franck. This opening one is rather haunting I think you'll find.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> PS: I suppose we're talking about Cesar Franck. I also have piano trios by Eduard Franck and Richard Franck in my CD collection.


Good point. Now I'm not sure which Franck beetzart was referring to. Ah, beezart has come back and cleared up the situation.


----------



## chromatic owl (Jan 4, 2017)

beetzart said:


> There is something that he does that drives each movement onto even more unbelievable passages. I find it hard to describe but each trio is just filled with tension and Franck manages to suspend a conclusion for as long as possible. For me I just find them more interesting than Brahms' trios, as good as Brahms' are.


I completely agree. The thematic material he uses has always some haunting and mysterious quality to it. His developmental techniques produce effects much more emotionally intense than Brahms's. The way he builds up a movement from the very beginning to its final climax is quite astonishing and unique: he draws layers of music and then combines them (often even contrapuntally) as if he is painting amazing pictures and then overlaps them to create an even more powerful one.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

The only Piano Trio in the repertoire I like as much as any of Brahms is the Ravel.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Give me Brahms any day of the week, Beaux Arts Trio or Renaud Capuçon (violin), Gautier Capuçon (cello), Nicolas Angelich (piano)on Erato.


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Gave a listen to the Franck. I'll stick with Brahms. Agree on Beaux Arts Trio, although I keep thinking of picking up Stern/Istomin/Rose (my first version of Op. 8 on LP).

On the other hand I love the Franck Violin Sonata/Brahms Horn Trio disc with Perlman/Ashkenazy/Tuckwell disc. Both works equally.


----------



## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Checked out Franck's but Brahms 1st Piano Trio is one of my favourite pieces of music so it'll have to be Brahms. You've inspired me to listen to more Franck, though. Terribly overlooked.


----------



## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Best performance I've heard, by the way.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

To be perfectly Franck, I find the three Brahms Piano Trios to be the greatest ever composed, rivaled only by the two Mendelssohn Piano Trios.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I'll stick with my first choice , the sound those man making together is stunning.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Franck's Trios were very early works composed while he was still a student.

Unfair to compare a minor composer like Franck as a student, no less, to the full-fledged genius of one of the greatest composers who ever lived, as Brahms was.

Franck was a two trick composer:

Symphony in D minor

Violin Sonata in A Major

Those are nice, but it takes more than two works to make a major composer.


----------



## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I'll stick with my first choice , the sound those man making together is stunning.


Composed by the Bach and the Mozart of the Romantic period at the age of 20.


----------



## chromatic owl (Jan 4, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Franck's Trios were very early works composed while he was still a student.
> 
> Unfair to compare a minor composer like Franck as a student, no less, to the full-fledged genius of one of the greatest composers who ever lived, as Brahms was.


Even more astounding when you realize that unimportant student's work is actually better


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

chromatic owl said:


> Even more astounding when you realize that unimportant student's work is actually better


That's like saying my collective posts on Talk Classical are better than Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities.

I didn't call Franck unimportant; simply, a minor composer.

If the Franck Piano Trios are so wonderful, how come many on TC appear to have never heard anything about them?

If the Franck Trios were worthy, believe me, we at TC would know all about them.


----------



## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

hpowders said:


> That's like saying my collective posts on Talk Classical are better than Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities.
> 
> I didn't call Franck unimportant; simply, a minor composer.
> 
> If the Franck Piano Trios are so wonderful, how come 99% of TC has never heard anything about them?


I assume the answer involves "melancholy of impotence" or Brahms being "dull", "boring" and "lacking in melodic invention". :lol:


----------



## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

hpowders said:


> That's like saying my collective posts on Talk Classical are better than Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities.
> 
> I didn't call Franck unimportant; simply, a minor composer.
> 
> If the Franck Piano Trios are so wonderful, how come 99% of TC has never heard anything about them?


Maybe they listen to too much music by Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, and Mahler to have any time left to listen to Franck Piano Trios.


----------

