After Scriabin & After Debussy
Trio No. 1 for violin, cello and piano, Op. 8; Roslavetz: Trio No. 3; Tailleferre: Trio for piano, violin and cello; Milhaud: Trio for piano, violin, cello.
Clementi Trio: Daniel Spektor (violin), Manuel Gerstner (cello), Deborah Richards (piano).
Largo CDC 7243 5 56618 2 1. DDD. TT 65:29.
Recorded Studio 3, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich, 2 December 1986 & 28-30 September 1987.

Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8; Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67; Schnittke: Trio for violin, violoncello and piano (1985/92).
Vienna Piano Trio: Wolfgang Redik (violin), Marcus Trefny (cello), Stefan Mendl (piano).
Nimbus NI 5572. DDD. TT 69:00.
Recorded Concert Hall of the Nimbus Foundation, 6-9 April 1998.

Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8; Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67; Aphorisms, Op. 13 (arr. for piano trio, bassoon and percussion by Boris Bekhterev and Vladimir Spivakov)[a].
The Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble: Alexander Melnikov (violin), Natalia Sabinova (cello), Victor Yampolsky (piano), Valery Popov (bassoon)[a], Sergei Ampleyev (percussion)[a].
Triton 17 011. DDD. TT 52:20
Recorded at Mosfilm Studio, Moscow, 1-10 October 1994.

Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67; Dvorak: Piano Trio, Op. 90, Dumky; Rachmaninov: Vocalise.
Eroica Trio: Adela Peña (violin), Sara Sant'Ambrogio (cello), Erika Nickrenz (piano).
EMI CDC 7243 5 56673 2 8. DDD. TT 66:17.
Recorded St. Stephen's Church, Tiburon, California, 5-9 March 1998.

Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67; Dvorak: Piano Trio, Op. 90, Dumky; Suk: Elegy, Op. 23.
Ahn Trio: Angella Ahn (violin), Maria Ahn (cello), Lucia Ahn (piano).
EMI CDC 7243 5 56674 2 7. DDD. TT 67:12.
Recorded American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 10, 11, 14 & 15 July 1997.

It is regrettable that Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 1 is usually dismissed as a poor cousin to No. 2, for, taken on its own merits, it is a fascinating, well-constructed piece, full of emotive possibility and open to a variety of interpretations. It's difficult to believe that this is the work of a boy who had just turned 17. After hearing Shostakovich play his Trio at his entrance exam for the Moscow Conservatory, Myaskovsky exclaimed that Shostakovich had no need to enter in the Form course: "Why Form, when he already is a complete master of form. I'll take him immediately on the free composition course." (Subsequently, events conspired against Shostakovich's move to Moscow, and he remained at the Leningrad Conservatory).

Dedicated to the love of Shostakovich's youth, Tatyana Glivenko, the First Piano Trio harbours a tender intermission strongly reminiscent of Debussy at his most idyllic, so the title of the Largo disc is fitting. This isn't exactly a new release, actually being more of a new distribution, having originally been released in Europe in 1988 but only lately finding a major distributor to get it into North American stores. I cannot say that I fell for the Clementi Trio's rendition of Opus 8, finding their grip rather too loose to win a firm recommendation. There are however, moments of true pastoral beauty in their reading. The Clementi specialise in out-of-the-way works, so if the rare repertoire coupling the Shostakovich sparks your curiosity, you needn't hesitate.

The Vienna Piano Trio's account of Trio No. 1 is the most contemplative of the alternatives under consideration here, capturing well the bittersweet yearning of its outer sections. A more carefree version comes from the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, whose Triton disc turned up in last issue's reviews in connection with their unusually scored Aphorisms coupling. The central section of the First Trio is more ravishingly beautiful on Triton than on Nimbus. In the end, though, the Vienna Piano Trio's version reveals more of the complex young author.

I completely agree with David Fanning's lament, oft expressed in the pages of Gramophone, that most recordings of the Second Trio fail to probe its darkest recesses. Critical to doing so is setting the scene properly at the beginning by imparting the fullest measure of sadness to the long muted introduction. This is not achievable merely by playing slowly and quietly, as the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble's reading demonstrates; it supplies both those qualities without achieving true bereavement. I was none too impressed by the rather shaky tone of both string instruments and the tentative manner in which they tackle their material in the second movement. The Largo is tinged with nostalgia, but not the deepest grief, and I sense a gulf between the players and the music throughout.

It's an entirely different story as far as the Vienna Piano Trio are concerned. Right from the opening bar they impart a sense of tragedy and profound loss. Try to put your finger on how they do it and you'll fail; it's not merely their funereal pace and hushed enunciation, there is that ineffable quality of emotional engagement. At the juncture of the first movement at which most competitors shift to a lighter mood (around Fig. 14 in the score), the Vienna Piano Trio keep their eyes fixed on their starting point. I was quite surprised to discover how long they take to relent in the second movement too. Loss is never far off; listen to how the lugubrious cello line is highlighted from Fig. 41/1:23. A few rays of sunshine penetrate later on, but through only sporadic breaks in the cloud cover. One might have expected even greater pathos in the third movement, but I admire the Vienna Piano Trio's decision to eschew histrionics in favour of an austere sorrow that is, ultimately, a more realistic expression of genuine grief. They minimize the Jewishness of the themes in the finale, but here again their approach is emotionally consistent.

It should be apparent by now that the Vienna Piano Trio's interpretation does not supply the full range of colour and mood that resides within the score. To my mind, their rendering is all the more gripping for its clear focus on the darker emotions, but I suppose that some may find it to be unjustifiably single-minded. It is certainly true that greater emotional variety can be heard in the composer's own 1947 recording with Czech cellist Milos Sádlo and David Oistrakh on violin, available on Vol. 1 of Doremi's David Oistrakh Collection in a 20-bit remastering (DHR-7701; it appeared briefly on Vol. 5 of Revelation's Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich series, RV70006, but transferred almost a semitone sharp). That is a recording no serious collector should be without, but technically the soloists are not beyond reproach. Milos Sádlo recalls that they played through in one go, almost without stopping, so there were apparently no retakes (see interviews in DSCH Nos. 8 & 9). Furthermore, tempi are hurried, perhaps gratuitously so, and the Largo is rather isolated in its mourning. For my money, Shostakovich's 1946 world première recording with the Beethoven Quartet's Dmitry Tsyganov and Sergei Shirinsky, which Revelation had placed on Vol. 6 (RV70007) and which is currently unavailable on CD, was a superior model to emulate, being less showy and more disciplined in its pacing.

Even so, neither of the composer's recordings go as far as the Vienna Piano Trio's performance in giving utterance to the grief latent in this score. Although Shostakovich had conceived of this trio before the death of its dedicatee, his dear friend Ivan Sollertinsky, it would appear that he only began putting it to paper four days after Sollertinsky's fatal heart attack on 11 February 1944, and he composed the bulk of it the following August. Two days after Sollertinsky died, Shostakovich wrote to Isaac Glikman, "I don't have the words to express the pain that tears my very being to pieces." The Nimbus disc demonstrates that he did have the notes.

So transcendent is the Vienna Piano Trio's reading that I very nearly forgot to mention that the quality of the playing is first-rate. Do not, under any circumstances, ignore this performance!

I described Schnittke's Trio, in chamber orchestra transcription, in my review of ECM New Series' excellent Dolorosa album, partnering Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a (ECM 1620; DSCH No. 9). In its original instrumentation Schnittke's Trio is spikier than in Yuri Bashmet's orchestration. Not for the squeamish; it's a work that strips the skin from the soul and exposes it raw, and the Vienna Piano Trio dissect it without flinching.

What a bizarre coincidence (for it certainly cannot have arisen as a strategic decision) that EMI should release, within months of each other, two discs of the Shostakovich Second Trio and Dvorak's Dumky Trio, both performed by strikingly beautiful and fashionable young female Julliard School graduates! And, before I am attacked for what may appear to be a sexist statement, I hasten to point out that both the Eroica and Ahn Trios are unapologetically image-conscious … or, at least, so they have allowed themselves to be marketed. Both Trios have their own websites on the Internet with fashion-mag-style photos of the members (http://www.eroicatrio.com/ and http://www.ahntrio.com/. The Ahn Trio also have their own logo that resembles a Korean character, and this is emblazoned on and inside the booklet, and even on the CD itself. The notes to both discs inform us which fashion designers the musicians are wearing in the accompanying photographs, as well as who did their hair and makeup!

While there is a risk that such focus on image may be interpreted as superficiality and thus turn off a segment of the buying public, it could also attract new listeners to the CDs beneath the pictures, particularly among the young - both Trios regularly give outreach concerts at schools and universities. In any case, the Eroica and Ahn players have reached their present status through hard work and dedication to their musicianship, and these new releases deserve to be judged, without prejudice, on that basis.

As it turns out, there's really no contest between the two EMI versions of the Second Piano Trio, the Eroica Trio winning by a wide margin. The best thing about the Ahn Trio's account is Angella Ahn's ethereal violin tone. There's nothing wrong with her sisters' support, technically, but because the trio's relaxed grasp and lax tempi dissipate tension, this reading would be quite empty of feeling if it weren't for the plaintiveness of the violin's voice. Such emotion as manages to manifest itself is pale and watery, and the listener's attention wanders.

Annotator David Foil reveals that Shostakovich's Second Trio was the piece that clinched the Eroica's soloists as a Trio, appearing on their first concert programme almost ten years ago. The performance on this disc still sounds enthusiastically fresh, but also has a greater maturity to it than the Ahn's. The introduction is handled superbly as a true pianissimo lament, and the Eroica's changes of pulse within the first movement convince both instinctively and intellectually. There is a richness to their sound that recalls the panache of the Beaux Arts Trio's performance on Philips (432 079-2), but the Eroica dig much deeper into the music and are not concerned with creating attractive effects, as the Beaux Arts Trio seem to have been. On the contrary, in their enthusiasm, the Eroica players are not afraid to sound downright brutal, as with Adela Peña's exaggerated up-bowed crescendi in her recapitulation of the finale's opening theme. The impact of Sara Sant'Ambrogio's bow in the climax of the last movement (from Fig. 84/5:08) turns her cello into a percussion instrument! Listening to the fervour with which the Eroica Trio chew through the second movement, their imprisoned brooding in the Largo, or their emphatic - even violent - attack in the finale, one is left with no doubt as to their commitment to this opus. They also supply the most authentic-sounding Jewish motifs of any of the discs under consideration in this review. Theirs is a performance I will be taking off the shelf often. It is only the Vienna Piano Trio's even darker delivery that ultimately tips the scales in favour of the Nimbus account.

As to the main coupling on the EMI discs, I also prefer the Eroica's take on Dvorak's Dumky Trio, which is one of the finest (and certainly the most ravishing) performance of the work that I've heard. It is more impassioned than the Ahn Trio's, though no one should be disappointed by their undeniably lyrical account either. Suk's Elegy is well served by the Ahn sisters, and although I may do a Van Gogh if I have to sit through another Rachmaninov Vocalise anytime soon, the Eroica Trio play their own transcription of it superbly.

Acoustics on all of these discs are good, with Nimbus' being the most naturally sympathetic. EMI's for the Eroica Trio is also admirable, and I did not at all mind its faint, echo-induced harmonics on the violin's line at the beginning of the Shostakovich, which, if anything, add to the sense of atmosphere.

To sum up, then, the Vienna Piano Trio's entry now takes its place as my top recommendation in both Trios, and the Eroica Trio win an enthusiastic thumbs-up for a reading of uncommon intensity.

W. Mark Roberts
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DSCH No. 11.
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