Mendelssohn: Piano Trios [CD]

The Florestan Trio is well on its way to becoming the pre-eminent piano trio of this generation, with outstanding recordings of Dvorak, Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, and Brahms (all on Hyperion) under their belts. They have impeccable technical polish and musical judgment, and they consistently bring a sense of freshness and re-discovery even to frequently performed and recorded works. So often in their recordings, they make a passage you've heard so many times already sound special and new, without being idiosyncratic or different just for the sake of being different. I'd been wondering for a while now when they would get around to the Mendelssohn trios, for which they are clearly well-suited. This new CD does not disappoint.

I have two good recordings already of these works: the Stern/Rose/Istomin trio on Columbia/Sony and the Vienna Piano Trio on Nimbus. The Florestan Trio's recording becomes my new favorite, not least for their choice of tempi. Frequently with the Vienna Piano Trio, I felt that the tempi were a bit rushed, with the result that the performances sounded a bit frantic (I've noticed this in the group's live performances also). The Florestan, on the other hand, is ideally paced, missing none of the sweep of the D minor trio's first movement, for example, yet without giving the sense that the notes are about to spin out of control. Their performance of the (later) C minor trio led to a re-thinking on my part: previously I'd discounted this work as the inferior, "greyer"-sounding of the two, but with a performance as fresh as this, one begins to think that the C minor work is in fact the subtler and more accomplished piece. I had a similar reaction after hearing the Florestan Trio's recording of the two Schumann trios, and it speaks volumes for the ensemble's quality when they can help us re-discover and re-evaluate works we thought we knew. The sound quality, as we've come to expect from Hyperion, is first-rate, ideally balanced, detailed yet warm.

What's next? The Florestan Trio has recorded most of the standard Romantic repertoire now; let's hope that they will get around to some of the (slightly) less well-known works, such as the trios of Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, and Rachmaninov. Haydn and Mozart also seem ideally suited for the Florestan Trio. I would be delighted to see the first volume of the "Complete Piano Trios of Joseph Haydn"!

Finally, a few words about this record company. Music lovers may be aware that Hyperion has had considerable legal and financial difficulties recently (for more information, visit their website at [...]). Let me say that this record label, perhaps more than any other classical label, is deserving of your support, even if its CDs cost a bit more. Their artists are outstanding, their choice of repertoire often adventurous, and their engineering superb. We can thank Hyperion for such notable achievements of classical recording as the complete lieder of Schubert and Schumann; the "Romantic Piano Concerto" series, now being followed up with violin and cello. This company probably has done more for the classical music lover in the past couple decades than the majors (Sony, RCA, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Philips, Warner) combined. Cheers to them, and let's help them keep doing this great work.

The Florestan Trio is one of the finest ensembles before the public today. Pianist Susan Tomes, violinist Anthony Marwood, and cellist Richard Lester are not only superb musicians on the solo level, they have gained that estimable reputation of communication within their many recordings of perfect inflection, intonation, and phrasing that places them with the finest trios both now playing and those who have come before.

Mendelssohn's two Piano Trios hold the magic of his larger compositions. While the Piano Trio No. 1 quotes phrases and melodic lines from his symphonies, his early music for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and his 'Songs Without Words', the Piano Trio No. 2 is a more deeply personal statement, more solemn yet still with the airborne delicacy we associate with Mendelssohn: it is a fully mature work.

The immaculate ensemble playing by the Florestan Trio brings more energy and sense of continuity to the works than do other performances. There never seems to be a moment when the vision of each of the movements is in question: the Trio finds the line of thought and delivers it with grace of tone and technique.For those who admire exquisite chamber music, and even if there are other recordings of these two beautiful works in library, this CD is well worth adding to the connoisseur's collection. Grady Harp, June 06

Mendelssohn's D minor trio opens with an especially emphatic and memorable melody. Part of it resembles "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. I recall no tune as emphatic as this among the piano trios of Schumann, Raff or Brahms. The only such tune I can think of is the one that starts Beethoven's Archduke Trio. High emphasis was a feature of Beethoven's choleric musical temperament-- "Artists are fiery and do not weep," he declared. Mozart's melodies are simple but rarely as emphatic except perhaps in works such as the D minor Piano Concerto. Mendelssohn adopted Mozart's quality of fluency and combined it with Beethoven's blunt emphasis to create music that sticks in the memory-- perhaps too well. As with Mozart it is a kind of elegant pop music. Mendelssohn has a way of sounding overly familiar after repeated listenings. He must have been great for premieres.

At present I prefer listening to Raff's trios simply because they are unfamiliar. Schumann is an intermediate figure. His melodies can be emphatic but he usually has something quirkish and uncanny up his sleeve. Brahms emulates Beethoven's sound of ardent effort. Raff achieves a type of beauty I do not find in other composers. Mendelssohn's comparatively delicate music, as in the second movement of the D minor trio sounds "sentimental" in a way that Raff never does. I define "sentimental" as a tendency to make a virtue of weakness in a way that the Apostle Paul never intended when he declared that he gloried in his infirmities.

The second movement of the D minor is emphatic in its own way and sounds like one of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" for solo piano. The piano entrance of the movement adds to this effect. Like the other composer from a Hebrew Christian background, Anton Rubinstein, Mendelssohn maintains a high professional standard; but this consistency gives his music a quality of deliberate limitation. It lacks the quality of "arete" or adventurous courage. Mendelssohn simulates adventure in his "Ruy Blas" and "Hebrides" overtures but does not allow the spirit of adventure to intrude on his professional muse. The hymn tune that turns up emphatically in the finale of the C minor trio seems more complacent than spiritually challenging.