Mikhail GLINKA (1804-1857) Trio pathétique
in D minor (1832) [14:19]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Piano Trio in A minor Op.50
(1882) [47:54]
Moscow Rachmaninov Trio
rec. March and April 2000, State House of Broadcasting and Audio Recording,
Moscow
HYPERION HELIOS CDH55322 [62:23]
This disc first appeared around a decade ago on Hyperion CDA67216, and now
makes a reappearance on the company’s lower budget Helios label. The repertoire
is Russian, one a canonic trio, the other a far less well known work which
was originally written for entirely different forces. I suppose the Tchaikovsky
A minor can’t help but dwarf most disc companions – not merely by virtue of
its size but also by the very nature of its emotional depth and passionate
melancholy. It’s perhaps for this reason that the Glinka was chosen, though
it actually serves as a not unattractive aperitif. But aperitif, I have to
say, is what it very much remains.
It was written in 1832 and is a compact four movement work lasting here less
than a quarter of an hour. It was originally written for clarinet, bassoon
and piano but it has long been better known in its arrangement for standard
piano trio. It cleaves to an interesting lineage, sounding in places not unlike
Beethovenian models, most expressly in the opening movement. The scherzo that
follows is energetic but light-hearted in style and tone, though Glinka ensures
that there are moments of contrast, which are genteelly pugnacious. There
is warm filigree in the Largo, but the decorative, indeed almost rococo piano
plasticity points to a none too profound sense of depth. The finale exploits
those almost contradictory elements of the genteel and the stormy that are
embodied in this work. It’s played with circumspect intelligence by the Moscow
Rachmaninov Trio, who are wise to the work’s more superficial elements.
Concerning the Tchaikovsky Trio I must be rather more circumspect. This is
a perfectly serviceable performance, well laid out and distributed, with a
just balance between the instruments. It is however something of a partial
reading of the score, something that might come as balm for those who tire
of high voltage examinations of its gruelling rhetoric. Yet few surely would
prefer this rather discreet and tidy performance to that, say, of the Borodin
Trio or the Gilels-Kogan-Rostropovich of hallowed memory, or indeed the Ashkenazy-Perlman-Harrell.
What this performance lacks is not necessarily molten vibratos and conquistador
pianism, but a cumulative sense of the work’s power. That said, one is pleased
to note that the big cut sometimes taken is declined by these forces.
Even so, one can hardly recommend a disc for fourteen minutes of genial Glinka.
The burden of the matter is a lightweight Tchaikovsky Trio, so caveat emptor.
Jonathan Woolf