Felix Mendelssohn : Complete Piano Trios

Album review

Many pianists associate the city of Vienna, home of the Altenberg Trio Wien, with legendary piano maker Bosendorfer. These instruments offer a wonderfully unique, clear, and pure sound, a timbre so unique as to be almost unmistakable when listening to this album for the first time. The clean touch of this piano along with the facile playing of pianist Claus-Christian Schuster and the fidelity of an SACD recording make for a rather remarkable experience when listening to the Mendelssohn piano trios: every note can be heard! This is almost unheard of in the intricate and ornate world of Mendelssohn's piano writing. All too often, the faster and more involved passage work is blurred over by the use of too much pedal or excess resonance from the instrument itself. Such is not the case here, making this recording worthwhile just for the piano part. Of course, these are piano trios and there are two other musicians present who deserve some recognition as well. The playing of violinist Amiram Ganz and cellist Martin Hornstein are just as nimble, facile, and accurate as their comrade. The one downside to this recording, which is largely a matter of personal preference, is that the tempos of both first movements are notably slower than what most listeners might be used to. The trio more than makes up for these slower choices, however, in the breakneck velocities achieved in the two scherzos.
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