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BRAHMS: Piano Trios – Vienna Piano Trio – MD&G; BRAHMS: Rhapsodies; Piano Sonata 3; Ballade – Mortensen, p. – LAWO

by Audiophile Audition | Nov 9, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

BRAHMS: Piano Trios No. 1 – Trio Op. 8 (Version of 1889); Trio Op. 87 ‒ Vienna Piano Trio ‒ MD&G multichannel SACD MDG 942 1962-6 (& 2+2+2); 63:31 (7/8/16) ***1/2: “In Finstrer Mitternach” = BRAHMS: Two Rhapsodies, Op. 74; Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5; Ballade, Op. 10, No. 1 ‒ Nils Anders Mortensen, p. ‒ LAWO multichannel SACD LWC1084; 58:00 (2/6/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Brahms at midnight and mid-afternoon. I decided to review these recordings together because they started me thinking about the fractious (mostly on one side of the equation) relationship between Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Thanks to Nicolas Slonimsky’s endlessly entertaining Lexicon of Musical Invective, we know that Tchaikovsky was not a fan of Brahms. In a diary entry from 1886, Tchaikovsky noted that he was playing some music by Brahms. His reaction? “What a giftless bastard!” Tchaikovsky did moderate his view when he met Brahms two years later in Leipzig, at the home of violinist Adolph Brodsky. Here, the Russian composer found Brahms a dignified, kindly man and generally had more complementary things to say about his German rival. However, auditing a run-through of Brahms’s new trio—presumably the Trio No. 3, Op. 101—Tchaikovsky was moved […]

SCHUBERT – Piano Trios Op. 99 & 100 – Harmonia mundi

by Audiophile Audition | Nov 5, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

FRANZ SCHUBERT – Piano Trios Op. 99 & 100 – Staier Trio – Harmonia mundi 902233.34, (2 CDs) 51:38, 45:33 (10/21/16) [Distr. by PIAS] *****: (Andreas Staier – fortepiano/ Daniel Sepec – violin/ Roel Dieltiens – violoncello) Adjusting Schubertian attitudes with help from the fortepiano. The new Harmonia mundi release of Schubert’s late piano trios Op. 99 & 100 played on period instruments, including a copy of a Schubert period fortepiano, is an especially welcome event. It allows me to provoke our great sage, Pandit Singh, whose dislike of fortepianos is well-known. The Arbiter Elegantiarum of the audiophile listening group, rarely fails to find the crux of the matter at such times. “There is problem” he begins as usual, “Schubert’s famous heavenly repetition may be ill served by the plinkity-plonkity sound of the out-of-tune church basement piano.” I object strongly, pointing out that Andreas Staier has steadily risen to the top of a new generation of early music keyboardists who have found an ideal sound for Schubert’s music. Correct in scale but strong in voice, his instruments always astound with their sparkle and clarity, whether harpsichord or, as here, the fortepiano. Surely the Pandit is being rashly dismissive. But he […]