This is a recording of high ambitions which leaps into a fairly
strong competitive field. The best recent recording I know is
that on BIS
CD 1302 with Freddy Kempf and colleagues, who come up with
a performance full of eloquence and hard-hitting passion. You
have to be a big fan of Gidon Kremer and warm to his declamatory
style to seek out this recording in particular, and while I’ve
greatly enjoyed his performances in the past there have also
been a fair few moments of more than a little mild frustration.
To my ears this ECM recording puts the musicians just a tad
to widely apart in the stereo spread however, and Kremer is
rather out on a limb on your left speaker, the whole thing struggling
a little to integrate properly. This is a tricky balance to
bring off in recordings and I know the violin will tend to stick
out more than the cello in general as a matter of course in
this setting, but there are plenty of little passages where
the violin interjects and comments with minor musical brushstrokes
on what the piano is doing, and here they are almost chronically
prominent. One thing I also prefer with the Kempf Trio’s phrasing
in the first movement, for instance in that four note phrase
which is repeated somewhat ad nauseam at times. Everything is
reasonably OK most of the time with Kremer, but he does have
a tendency to linger or weigh in rather heavily with the last
note of these and other phrases at times, something which seems
to bring out the banality of some of the material, highlighting
structural or transitional notes in an overly melodic fashion.
All of this said there are magical moments enough, and the piano
is recorded with a richness and colour which brings everything
back to a centre which can at times have a heart of real gold.
Giedre Dirvanauskaite’s cello playing is beautifully expressive
at the soft heart of that extended first movement, and is restrained
and moving with that main theme and its moments of derivation
and variation.
The Tema con Variazioni begins with nicely observed details
from pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, and this sequence of miniatures
is once again full of lovely and impressive music making. Little
patches such as Variazione II where the violin has a subtle
figurations to flutter over the cello’s solo tune are not helped
by the recording however, and Kremer’s upper registers distract
rather than enhance. Buniatishvili is rather rapid in the music-box
Variazione V and looses clarity as a result, but the subsequent
waltz variation dances in fine Viennese fashion as well as being
witty and full of subtle touches. The strings dig deep in the
Fuga variation and I feel protest a little too much, and the
Mazurka rhythm is also pulled around so much that the character
of the music becomes something rather remote from anything really
dance-like. The symphonic nature of the Finale e Coda is grabbed
by the scruff and played with great verve by Kremer and his
colleagues. As you would expect there are many great things
in a recording of this nature, but if I was helping someone
in a shop I think the words ‘kinda quirky’ might not be too
far from my summing-up. Tchaikovsky’s Trio Op.50 is that kind
of piece – unique and tough as well as filled with remarkable
invention and personality. These are all qualities which Kremer,
Dirvanauskaite and Buniatishvili bring to the score, and I can
see this recording gaining its own set of followers. I wasn’t
convinced at every corner however, and for consistency and reliably
heady music making I think my preference still resides in the
Kempf Trio’s hands.
A native of St Petersburg, Victor Kissine acquired a scandalous reputation for his operatic setting of Peter Weiss’s play Marat-Sade in the 1980s, but his main focus has more recently been on chamber music. Played here by its dedicatees, Zerkalo (Mirror) is more than just a filler. The work is filled with structural mirror references, employing inversions and reflections of material as well as creating atmospheres of secretive and unreachable realms. Contrasts of the meditative and the dramatic are juxtaposed closely, and there are some sections of remarkably intense expression – the exploration of special effects in the strings always in the service of one or other chilling mood rather than as an exercise in virtuoso composition. This is the kind of piece which fascinates, though it demands a few hearings to gain a full appreciation. Even on a first encounter there is however plenty of gritty goodness to whet the intellect and the emotions.
ECM usually comes up with the goods in terms of high quality recording and keenly competitive performance, and the results here certainly fit in with the label’s individualist ethos. The well chosen cover photo for this release is by the way from a sequence taken in Tokyo elevators by Xavier Comas. Uniquely engaged in the contemporary Zerkalo, this trio’s Tchaikovsky also sails very close to being truly magnificent and certainly has a good deal to offer, being the kind of performance which would certainly gain ovations at a live concert. As a recording it stands well enough and has real character and some gorgeous moments, but – feel free to disagree by all means – I feel it may deliver as many quirks as it does calibre when delved into in detail. These are perhaps the kinds of quirks one can come to know and love on repeated listening, and funnily enough if you let the music roll over you and stop picking at details then it tends to increase in stature on this CD. In the end we’ll all have to weigh the arguable foibles against the refinement and beauty on offer and make up our own minds, which I know is a terrible cop-out, but then, I’m a hopeless coward.
Dominy Clements
Gidon Kremer (violin), Giedre Dirvanauskaite (cello), Khatia
Buniatishvili (piano)
