Reviews for
GMCD 7242 Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninov
BBC Music Magazine 11.02
Rachmaninov – Trio
élégiaque in G minor
Tchaikovsky – Piano Trio inA minor, Op. 50
Barbican Piano Trio
Guild GMCD 7242 67:51 mins…£££
Tchaikovsky
dedicated his Piano Trio ‘to the memory of a great artist’, his pianist friend
Nikolai Rubinstein; Rachmaninov used the same phrase to preface his D minor
Trio élégiaque, a requiem for Tchaikovsky’s own untimely death. The length
of that work – only a few minutes short of Tchaikovsky’s 50-minute epic –
precludes its inclusion here. Rachmaninov composed this one-movement G minor
Trio élégiaque while
Tchaikovsky was still alive and well. It breathes the contours of the master's
lyric style in every bar, and even quotes a turbulent figure from Tchaikovsky’s
Manfred Symphony; Gabrielle Lester and Robert Max highlight it
dramatically, so it’s odd that Max doesn’t mention the helpful link in his
booklet note.
Rachmaninov’s first Trio, though, is only a generically lugubrious
curtain-raiser to the main event. I wondered whether the players, especially the
pianist James Kirby, called upon to dominate Tchaikovsky’s second-movement
variations Rubinstein-style, could manage the big guns so fulsomely demanded. In
fact they don’t really try to, which actually makes this the most companionable
performance of a work where the hyper-Romanticism can be wearing. Loud dynamics
are kept in check, and the most magical moment is the melody Tchaikovsky pulls
out of his mourning top-hat halfway through the development - beautifully
sustained here. While several of the variations, especially the lilting waltz,
could do with a touch more panache, the fugue is keenly pointed, and the finale
springs and bounces in such a way as never to outstay its welcome. There may not
be the creativity of the Russian performance dominated by Richter which will
always be my benchmark, but the pleasures remain well-tempered throughout.
David Nice
PERFORMANCE ***
SOUND ****
Tchaikovsky: Richter Live LCL 194
MDC Classical Express July 02
We are not exactly
spoiled for choice when it comes to CD recordings of these two great Russian
chamber works, and so it is particularly pleasing to welcome these fine,
rewarding performances to the catalogue. The Barbican Piano Trio have the full
measure of this glorious music and their playing throughout is imbued with a
real sense for the tragic, melancholy nature of these pieces. They possess a
wonderfully blended tonal warmth and technical purity that sometimes reminds one
of the late, great Beaux Arts Trio, although one is bound to say that the
Barbican's playing often has greater vibrancy and displays more individual
character, thus preventing the textures from becoming too smooth or muddy, a
frequent problem in this genre. The Rachmaninov in particular receives an
especially beautiful performance of real luminous clarity and intelligence, and
has some outstanding contributions from all three players, whilst the far more
grandiose and it must be said, occasionally overstretched Tchaikovsky A minor
Trio is held together most effectively with little sense of bombast or padding -
a real achievement. Excellent, natural recordings.
NEW CLASSICS - JULY 02
The excellent Barbican
Piano Trio perform Rachmaninov’s passionate and soulful single-movement Trio in
G minor, Elegiaque. The other work on this outstanding recording is
Tchaikovsky’s poignant Piano Trio in A minor, premiered ten years earlier (in
1882) than the Racmaninov piece. The Barbican Piano
Trio are Gabrielle Lester (violin), Robert Max (cello) and James Kirby (piano).
Page revised 11.12.02
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