This Easter recital did not, perhaps, show the Vienna Piano Trio (known through their excellent Nimbus CDs) to best advantage. Their cellist has a spinal problem and Christian Poltera is sitting in for several months. They have just ended a gruelling tour of Australia, flew in to broadcast immediately on Radio 3 and the following day this first of their two appearances at Wigmore Hall.
Mozart's in Bb was neat; Ravel's less involving than it can be. Schubert's Eb is the less winning of his two piano trios, but brought out their best. The darkening of the ending of the andante, its main theme a Swedish song, was impressive. They made (fairly) light of the tense, lengthy finale and relaxed afterwards into the slow movement of Beethoven's Op.1/1, which they will be playing on Monday, with a Haydn trio, and Schumann's Op. 63.
They have CDs of Dvorak, Beethoven, Haydn & Mendelssohn and a very interesting one of Shostakovich and Schnittke - Nimbus NI 5572.
See CD Review
Peter Grahame Woolf
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