Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 (1854, revised version 1889) [36.48]
Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941)
Phantasie Trio (Piano Trio No.1 in C minor) (1907) [15:41]
Hyung-ki Joo (piano)
Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne (violin)
Thomas Carroll (cello)
rec. 2007 Great Hall, Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow (Brahms); Recital Hall,
Yehudi Menuhin School, London (Bridge)
PALADINO MUSIC PMR0076 [52.28]
On Paladino Music the trio of Hyung-ki Joo, Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne
and Thomas Carroll has released a recording featuring Brahms’s Piano
Trio No. 1 coupled with Frank Bridge’s Phantasie Trio.
It’s good to have such an unusual coupling available but I’m not
sure if the players are aware that when Bridge’s Phantasie Trio
received its first performance the Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 was on
the programme.
The Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 is an early work (1853/4) by the fledgling
composer. Several decades later in 1889 Brahms radically revised the score
with only the Scherzo staying essentially the same. It is this later
revised version that the trio play here. Containing such songful melodies
in the lengthy opening movement the necessary windswept feel seems rather
laboured and the required exuberance in the Mendelssohnian-like Scherzo
is missing, feeling a touch ponderous. Tenderly played by the trio the predominantly
gentle and submissive writing of the Adagio contains a distinct Schubertian
flavour. A blustery feel prevails in the Finale: Allegro
but compared to the finest rival accounts everything seems unwieldy and heavy.
Recorded in the Great Hall, Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow the sound does
the performers no favours with the closely recorded piano reverberant with
a metallic edge. The violin tone is a touch sour and the cello seems distant.
For its distinguished musicianship and captivating expression my particular
favourite recording of the Piano Trio No. 1 is played by the renowned
Trio Fontenay from 1989 at the Telex Studio, Berlin on Teldec/Warner. Another
recording that has just grown and grown on me is from Nicholas Angelich, Renaud
Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon. Recorded in 2003 at Chambéry the trio play with
real polish and effortless expression and have the benefit of satisfying sound
quality on Virgin Classics.
Of the generation that followed Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Sir Hubert
Parry, Frank Bridge is one of the most fascinating and talented of
the English composers active in the early part of the twentieth-century. Initially
Bridge’s music seems firmly conservative but he was certainly open to
European developments. From the 1920s his writing became more progressive;
described in some quarters as radical. Walter Cobbett was delighted with Bridge’s
first prize at the ‘1907 Cobbett Competition for Phantasie Piano Trio’
describing it as being “of remarkable beauty and brilliance, and
stamps him as one of our foremost composers for the chamber… the
best thing written as yet for piano and two strings by any British composer.”
In 1909 a successful first performance of the work was given by the London
Piano Trio at a banquet of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, London.
It seems Bridge was called back for two encores. Whilst in his twenties the
success of his Phantasie String Quartet and Phantasie Piano Trio
established Bridge as a leading composer of his generation in England but
today sadly his music is played far less than its inherent quality deserves.
I relish the highly passionate reading given to the glorious Phantasie
by the trio with playing containing the liberal amounts of vibrancy and emotional
intensity when appropriate. Recorded at the Recital Hall, Yehudi Menuhin School,
London disappointedly the overall sound is let down by the rather splashy
and unfocused piano tone. This is the second recording of the Bridge trio
by Zambrzycki-Payne and Carroll: the first was as the Dimension Piano Trio
in 2012 for Champs Hill Records, with pianist Anthony Hewitt (review).
There are few available recordings of the Phantasie trio, a hidden gem of
the repertoire, and only one that stands out as ideal. Recorded in 2007 at
St. Paul’s School, London, the London Bridge Ensemble excel with playing
of vitality and passion on Dutton Epoch. Probably the best known is the 1987
account from the Darlington Piano Trio, a reading where I am left wanting
increased passion and vitality but recorded superbly at Haberdashers'
Aske's Boys' School, Elstree on Hyperion.
Index points have not been added to three sections of the Bridge work. Another
grumble is the short length of the release which is a mere 52 minutes. Either
or both of the works that were second and third to Bridge’s Phantasie
trio in the ‘1907 Cobbett Competition for Phantasy Piano Trio’
from James Friskin and John Ireland would have made ideal couplings.
Michael Cookson
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