This is an eminently well-chosen selection of string trios;
a brace by Martinů, including the 1923 trio that only resurfaced
2005, the lovely, lissom one by Françaix, and for a calming
envoi, the Aubade by Enescu.
Martinů’s first trio was written in Paris and is a decidedly
uneasy kind of work. In this performance it opens rather like
a folk ensemble tuning up, but its richly polyphonic status
soon asserts itself and there are moments of suave Gallic lyricism
amidst the hints of Parisian avant-garde. The first movement
passage where the melody line rides over pizzicato accompaniment
is here played with startlingly effect; nutty and naughty in
the extreme. The young Lendvai String Trio certainly give it
their all, as they do throughout, earning maximum points for
expressive sculpting and excavation of the trio’s every innermost
nook and cranny. What they also tend to do, as this may suggest,
is to rather distend things. Turn, if you can – it’s not a commercial
disc as such – to the premiere performance on disc, by three
members of the Zemlinsky Quartet on a ‘Bohuslav Martinů
Days 2005’ disc. They’re much quicker, leaner, and less prone
to exaggerate things, and keep a tighter rein on structural
matters. True, they’re not as eye-popping tonally and in terms
of localised incident. But that, I think, points to the fact
that we do not yet have a consensus on how to play the work.
This may, or may not, emerge with time. There is an equal disparity
in the central movement where the Lendvai are the more mysterious,
whereas the Zemlinsky are, perhaps not inappropriately, more
youthful, unselfconscious: a fresh walk to the Lendvai’s Lekeu-derived
hothouse. Also, whilst I appreciate that the finale is marked
‘poco allegro’ it strikes me that the Lendvai take this at too
stately a trot.
The Second Trio is equally well played but this two-movement
work could also do with a bit of speeding up, to allow the incidents
more sharply to contrast. They surely slow down far too much
for the ‘second subject’ of the first movement; things grind
to a halt, and despite the insouciant Paganinian whistle imitations,
ripely brought out, and the slow intense start to the second
movement, there’s not always sufficient differentiation between
these two movements.
They certainly take the Françaix at their own tempo, ignoring
the waspish precedent of the Heifetz-led LP performance with
Joseph de Pasquale and Gregor Piatigorsky. Still, this new version
is richly presented, well textured and with a good complement
of badinage. If I miss the vertiginous accents and almost demonic
drive of the older recording, then I concede that this more
equable and obviously affectionate take is no mere virtuosic
showpiece. Neither is the Aubade, a charming and saucily folkloric
episode from Enescu.
Impeccably recorded and with a fine booklet - typos apart –
this is a good value for money disc. Interpretatively though
I’d like this group to luxuriate just a bit less, and to dig
in that bit more.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review by Steve
Arloff
Lendvai String Trio (Nadia Wijzenbeek (violin); Ylvali Zilliacus
(viola); Marie Macleod (cello)) 
