Trios avec piano (Volume 1)

Album review

Sweden's Kungsbacka Piano Trio has made solid recordings of Mozart's chamber music, and they clearly have a feel for how to bring out the unusual qualities of a Classical-era composition without going beyond the boundaries of the style. In this collection of piano trios from Haydn's second London sojourn, written for a woman who was in all likelihood the composer's girlfriend on the side, they have plenty of unusual material to work with. Consider the opening movement of the Piano Trio in D major, Hob. 25/24, with its daringly roundabout way of getting to its second subject area. There's the right level of mystery in the Kungsbacka's playing here, and the right level of lyricism in the very Schubertian opening melody of the Piano Trio in F sharp minor, Hob. 25/26. There's a lot to like in their playing here, but there's an issue shared with a lot of other groups that come at Haydn's keyboard trios from the perspective of modern instruments and modern repertory: the roles of the instruments aren't properly balanced. Although Haydn departs from the pattern in several clever ways, these are essentially keyboard sonatas with the accompaniment of a violin and cello, and the two stringed instruments get too much weight in most of the music here. Sample the last movement of the Piano Trio in G major, Hob. 15/25, with its familiar "Gypsy Rondo" finale. Here the piano is inadequately highlighted as the cello saws away on largely insignificant doublings of the piano's bass line. There are movements where the group's sound, faithfully captured in Britain's acoustically fine Potton Hall, works better than in other places, but sample various recordings to hear different relationships between piano and strings.
© TiVo

Details of original recording : 52:35 - DDD - Enregistré du 6 au 8 avril 2008 au Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk (Royaume-Uni) - Notes en anglais