Beethoven: Trios, Volume Ii

Chronique

This recording of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's Beethoven trio cycle has been around before, on Arabesque -- though no recording dates are listed, these recordings were made in 2000 and 2001. Koch is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of this esteemed chamber ensemble by making available again some of their past catalog, and Beethoven: The Complete Cycle of Trios, Vol. 2, figures into this plan. The first volume contains all the "big" trios -- the "Ghost," "Archduke," and "Kakadu Variations." This one includes Beethoven's significant, but neglected set of Op. 1 trios, the violin version of the "Gassenhauer" trio and the single-movement Trio, WOo 39, written for Maxmillian Brentano, the 10-year-old daughter of Antoine Brentano, believed in some circles to have been Beethoven's mysterious "Immortal Beloved." Joseph Kalichstein's liner note makes clear that this set of "Complete" trios is not fully complete -- they decided to skip the early Trio in E flat, WOo 38, as it is less inspired than the other works, and didn't record the trio arrangements of the Second Symphony and the Septet, Op. 20. Nevertheless, the two volumes taken together are still a lot of Beethoven, and Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's performances are consistently outstanding from work to work, as is Adam Abeshouse's production -- the recording is clear, forthright, and no single instrument tends to dominate the texture. Of course, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio is far from being the only trio to run the Beethoven cycle -- Stern/Rose/Istomin did so famously in the 1960s, as did Zukerman/Barenboim/du Pré; the Beaux Arts Trio recorded it in the 1970s and there was Ashkenazy/Perlman/Harrell in the 1980s. The last-named set has long been out of print, and while the earlier ones do deliver the goods, it's in rather dated sound -- the common package of the Zukerman/Barenboim -- du Pré Beethoven trio recordings include all of the violin and cello sonatas as well. Depending on what one is looking for, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio remains one of the strongest options for a complete survey of Beethoven's trio literature and likely has the edge in terms of sound quality alone.
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