Search - Borodin Trio :: Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2

A Superb Set of the Mendelssohn Piano Trios

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 09/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mendelssohn's Piano Trios are among the most treasured of all works in the piano trio form, and there have been many wonderful recordings of them, beginning (in my experience) with the Stern-Istomin-Rose set from forty years or so ago Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Op. 49 & Op. 66 , followed by the sturdy Florestan Trio set Mendelssohn: The Piano Trios, the trio made up of Julia Fischer, Daniel Müller-Schott and Jonathan Gilad Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 [Hybrid SACD] and one I like but which is no longer available, that by the Prague Guarneri Trio with the wonderful pianist Ivan Klanský. Many piano trios have recorded the more popular of the two, the Trio No. 1, Op. 49 in D Minor, among them the Beaux Arts and the trio made up of Martha Argerich, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon Brahms: Sonata for 2 Pianos; Mendelssohn: Piano Trio #1; Martha Argerich. Now enters a reissue of the 1984 set made by the Borodin Trio. The Borodin Trio was made up of husband-and-wife Rostislav Dubinsky, violin (better known as founder and first violin of the fabled Borodin String Quartet), and Luba Edlina, piano, along with cellist Yuli Turovsky. It was lauded when it was first issued and has been reissued at least one other time since its original appearance. It is now reissued at mid-price as part of the Chandos' celebration of the label's thirty years on the scene.



These performances are simply marvelous, emphasizing as they do the fully romantic quality of these two trios; people tend to think of Mendelssohn as a classicist but here his heart is on his sleeve, almost Brahmsian. The Borodins take the two scherzos at a slightly slower pace than we may be expecting (as, for instance, compared with the fleet Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson version) and their fairy music is all the better for that; the notes have a chance to register. The recorded sound is full, ripe and mellow, recorded as it was at the fabled recording site of St. Barnabas Church, Finchley, London by Brian and Ralph Couzens.



This reissue is welcome. It has rarely been off my CD player for the last couple of days and I swear my mood is better because of it.



Scott Morrison"