It took a move from his native Seville to Paris for Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) to discover an authentically Spanish voice for himself, principally encouraged there by his countryman Isaac Albéniz. The Piano Trio in F now numbers among the first works of Turina’s maturity, though it was lost for many years and only rediscovered in 1999.

The distance of over two decades between this early work and Turina’s first numbered Trio is mirrored in stark terms by the contrast in idioms. An essentially outgoing, Romantic temperament has been refined by the passing of time and life into a more angular melodic style, supported by more chromatic and allusive harmony – no less ‘Spanish’ in its way, perhaps even more so. This is the piece that for many years was Turina’s best-known chamber piece, beyond the Danzas fantasticas which delighted many listeners to Alicia de Larrocha and (in their orchestrated form) Ernest Ansermet.

Now the First Piano Trio may be appreciated in a broader context of Turina’s writing for a notoriously challenging genre, and we hear how in each work the three instruments gain a greater degree of independence. From 1933, the Trio no.2 continues this process of refinement and distillation, notwithstanding the Brahmsian hemiolas which destabilise its opening theme.
Turina’s masterpiece in the piano-trio genre is probably Circulo, a concise three-movement essay which he composed in 1936 on the eve of the Second World War. It charts the passing of a single day, from the slow stirrings of dawn to a dance in the middle of an Andalucian day through to the gradual falling of dusk, which begins in wild exuberance and ends in peace under a starry sky.

The Orphelion Ensemble was founded in Vienna by the Spanish violinist Deborah Gonsalves and the Austro-German cellist Berthold Hamburger. For this new recording of Turina's trios, they are joined by the Spanish pianist and Eva Browning Artist-in-residence Associate Professor of piano at Texas Tech University, Daniel del Pino. Based in Spain, Orphelion gives concerts across the world with a flexible line-up of artists in order to pursue an artistically ambitious programme which sees them work with leading visual artists, writers and actors.