The trio’s unusual instrumentation made its debut in Debussy’s mysteriously beautiful sonata, the middle work on this release, which contains some of the composer’s most imaginative chamber textures along with a furtive sense of melancholy. Takemitsu, for whom Debussy’s works were critical, extended the French composer’s innovations in ‘And then I knew ’twas Wind.’ Here the surfaces become more sinuous and less tangible, time is extended, and the piece plays like a series of enigmatic images. Even sparer and more restrained are the rustlings in Sofia Gubaidulina’s ‘Garden of Joys and Sorrows’, which balances a series of pitches from the natural harmonic series against the stabbing dissonances of minor intervals. The performances are all superb – precisely calibrated despite the dreamlike cast of the program as a whole.
David Weininger, Boston Sunday Globe
Debussy’s 1915 composition Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp was his penultimate work, an intriguing intimation of possible future developments marked by a free, rhapsodic structure. In this sensitive rendering by a trio led by violist Kim Kashkashian, the music seems to breathe, an organic being searching for its place in an uncertain world.
Andy Gill, The Independent
Die Musiker bringen die Stille zwischen den Noten wunderbar zum Klingen. Da die Drei gut aufeinander eingehen, entsteht ein intensives Hörerlebnis.
Andreas Fritz, Audio
‘Tre Voci,’ is a study in evocative atmosphere, focusing on pieces for the often ethereal combination of flute, viola and harp. The benchmark for that combination is Debussy's Sonata, an autumnal masterwork from 1915 delivered with finely measured doses of eloquence, sensuality and gentle fire by Piccinini, violist Kim Kashkashian and harpist Sivan Magen. That Debussy score inspired Toru Takemitsu's 1992 piece ‘And then I knew 'twas Wind,’ which creates a kind of musical mist that the three players penetrate with superb articulation and exquisite expression. Same for Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Garden of Joys and Sorrows’ from 1980, which makes a wide variety of technical demands met handsomely by the instrumentalists as they conjure up a world of richly poetic imagery.
Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun
One of the great sonorities in chamber music is the sound of flute, viola and harp in combination: it’s weightless but with real depth. There is potentially an exotic tinge to resultant textures; it can be wonderfully precise yet endlessly atmospheric and evocative. It was Debussy’s chosen medium for one of his late Sonatas […] Here is a wonderful new recording of the work, magically played by flautist Maria Piccinini, violist Kim Kashkashian and harpist Sivan Magen, coupled with Takemitsu’s evocative masterpiece ‘And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind’ and another enthralling study in stasis, ‘Garden Of Joys And Sorrows’ by Sofia Gubaidulina. What a seductive feast for the ears and the imagination.
Michael Tumelty, Sunday Herald
Debussy’s late Sonata for flute, viola and harp is one of his most elusive and refined masterpieces, and many composers from subsequent generations have been tempted to explore the same alluring soundworld. Two of the results appear around the Sonata here; both are single movements, on more or less on an equivalent scale. Toru Takemitsu’s And Then I Knew ’Twas Wind (1991; the title comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson) was designed to be performed alongside the Debussy; […] Sofia Gubaidulina’s Garden of Joy and Sorrow, composed in 1980, is built around a short poem too – by the Viennese Francisco Tanzer – which is recited at the end of the work, like a verbal equivalent to the solo cadenzas that articulate the instrumental piece. Together they make an elegant frame for the performance of the great sonata by Marina Piccinini, Kim Kashkashian and Sivan Magen, which is more robust than it can be, though still subtle and sensuous.
Andrew Clements, Guardian Online
Tre Voci: three contrasting compositional voices speak through three contrasting instruments in this new ECM recording. Violist Kim Kashkashian added Italian-American flautist Marina Piccinini and Israeli harpist Sivan Magen to form this new trio whose geographical spread is almost as wide as that of the music on this, their first recording.Released on September 20, ‘Tre Voci’ highlights one of Claude Debussy’s final masterworks, placing it between two pieces—by composers Toru Takemitsu and Sofia Gubaidulina—that it inspired. The result is a recording that literally draws a musical line from west to east, while capturing performances that will hopefully inspire more composers to write for this vital instrumental medium. […] As with the best ECM recordings, Manfred Eicher once again captures the immediate intensity of live performance with the particularly darker acoustic characteristics of the performance space. The performances on this disk are expertly executed, while the poetic yet scholarly program notes make this one a recording worth collecting.
Mark Nowakowski, Communities Digital News
Eine so außergewöhnliche wie klangschöne Besetzung, der sich das Trio Tre Voci verschrieben hat. Erfunden hat sie Claude Debussy, dessen Sonate für Flöte, Viola und Harfe hier zum kompositorischen Dreh- und Angelpunkt von Stücken wird, die nicht nur die Instrumentation verbindet, sondern auch ein unüberhörbarer Hang zur Nostalgie – allesamt Traumwelten im Niemandsland von Melancholie und Verklärung, Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. […] Es liegt auf der Hand, dass in diesen melodisch verschlungenen ‚Tongemälden‘ naturgemäß die Flöte eine besondere Rolle spielt. Trotzdem finden die Akteure zu einem wunderbar ausgewogenen Gesamtbild, bei dem nicht das kleinste zeichnerische Detail, nicht der winzigste Farbtupfer verloren geht.
Dirk Wieschollek, Stereo
Tre Voci’s exceptional musicianship makes apparent the creative kinship between these three beautiful works. The Debussy Sonata inhabits an enchanted world full of radical textures and figurations in which the musical line is not merely passed among the instruments, but each seems to be in a constant of mutation within the beguiling whole. Tre Voci brave the potentially harsh light of a close recording so that every nuance is captured, and Debussy’s work emerges sounding contemporaneous with the ore recent works.
While both Takemitsu and Gubaidulina persistently use unusual instrumental techniques, Tre Voci ensure these often delicate inflections are a natural, effortless part of the texture and musical line. They are not attention seeking quirks, but a continuation of Debussy’s love of playing with subtle colours.
Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine
Die Interpretation der Trios wirkt vollkommen. Als hätten Flötistin Marina Piccinini, Bratschistin Kim Kashkashian und Harfenist Sivan Magen sich lange Zeit gemeinsam von der Welt zurückgezogen, um diese Musik zu verinnerlichen. Es fällt schwer, auf Details aufmerksam zu machen, wo so sehr das Ganze zählt. Den Interpreten ist es gelungen, nicht nur eine Einheit zwischen sich und der Musik zu erzeugen, sondern auch ein großes Werk aus drei so unterschiedlichen Trios zu schaffen. Eine unbedingte Empfehlung!
Miriam Jessa, ORF
Stellar collaboration of three musicians at the top of their game […] Their recording of Debussy’s dazzling, inventive sonata is full of sonic pleasures, as are the two new pieces, the pensive, poetic ‘And Then I Knew ’Twas Wind’ by Toru Takemitsu and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Eastern reverie ‘Garten von Freuden und Traurigkeiten’.
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
