Search - Haydn Trio Eisenstadt :: Beethoven: Trios for piano, violin & cello

Top notch Beethoven trios

jsa | San Diego, CA United States | 10/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While it's hard to beat the Beaux Arts Trio in this music - their recordings are very polished & the recorded sound (1979-1982) is excellent - I must say that these new versions of the Beethoven piano trios from Haydn Trio Eisenstadt have captured my heart. The trio formed in 1992 so they have played together for a long time & it shows. They have real insight into Beethoven; & while their performances have a refreshing youthfulness to them they are also appropriately weighty without ever becoming self-absorbed. The pace of each piece seems just right with nothing rushed, nor too relaxed.



The production of this four disc set is very impressive; the recorded sound (2007) is outstanding, the liner notes are intelligently written & there's no skimping on the packaging. This is a real bargain in every respect - I bought my set new from an Amazon reseller for under $20.



Very highly recommended!

"

All of Beethoven's Piano Trio Movements Superbly Played and

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 10/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am embarrassed to admit that until I got this 4CD set containing all of Beethoven's piano trios and single movements for piano trio I was not as familiar as I should have been with the entire oeuvre. I knew, of course, the 'Archduke', the 'Ghost', and the 'Gassenhauer' trios (the latter in Beethoven's clarinet, cello and piano version), and as pianist I had played the 'Archduke' and the E Flat Trio, WoO 38. I knew nothing about the three Op. 1 trios, vaguely remember hearing the 'Kakadu' variations in the distant past, and I didn't even know of the existence of the second Op. 70 trio, so I was unprepared for the delight of discovery this set brought me. My enjoyment was much aided by the clean, spirited, glittering, musical and moving performances by a group I was previously unfamiliar with, the Trio Haydn Eisenstadt (THE). Looking through the accompanying booklet I was never able to spot the names of the members of this Austrian trio; the Internet provided me with their names, which ought to be more widely known. They are Harald Kosik, piano; Verena Stourzh, violin; and Hannes Gradwohl, cello. Huzzah to them!



The set starts off with the most widely known of the Trios, the 'Archduke'. I have for years loved the sparkling account by Perlman, Harrell and Ashkenazy. Although this present account is not perhaps as high wattage as that classic recording, it is extremely musical and indeed in the Andante variations movement is more moving than the earlier recording. Pianist Kosik does a remarkable job of moving the glorious slow movement forward via a skillful legato technique. Also he, more than most pianists, slyly teases us with that B flat major seven chord that leads directly into the vigorous finale which is here given a sufficiently fiery reading without going over the top.



The booklet notes for the 'Ghost' Trio tells me something I hadn't known. The popular nickname for the trio came not from Beethoven but refers to a notation -- on a separate sheet among the drafts for the Andante of the trio -- for an entirely different composition, apparently an outline for the witches' chorus for a prospective opera based on 'Macbeth.' (How we could all wish that Beethoven had finished that project!) Nonetheless it is understandable how the nickname stuck due to the wan harmonies and ghostly pianissimo tremolos in that Andante movement. But there is certainly nothing ghostly about the Trio's outer movements. Indeed, the opening of the first movement is played with bracing exuberance and the Presto finale has all the zip one could want.



I find I am of mixed feelings about the violin version of the 'Gassenhauer'. I love it, but I remain very attached to the clarinet version. I guess I can simply love both of them and leave it at that. Cellist Gradwohl and violinist Stourzh really shine in the lovely Adagio, surely one of the most moving of Beethoven's early slow movements. And the finale, a set of variations on 'Pria ch'io l'impegno' (a trio from a Joseph Weigl opera), is played with just the right sort of knowing mock-naïveté. A lovely performance.



The real discoveries for me, though, were the three Op. 1 Trios and the second of the Op. 70 trios. For a first opus, these three early works are simply amazing. They are grand, ambitious, and almost entirely successful. There is perhaps a dropping off of inspiration in the second of the three but this is perhaps because it is inevitably compared with its two opus-mates. The first trio was apparently written much earlier than the latter two and it sounds much more like early Mozart or even Stamitz with its 'Mannheim rocket' in the first movement and its reliance at times on simple accompaniment and, not surprisingly, virtuosity in the piano part. It is the third trio, though, that really looks forward to the Beethoven to come. It is thoughtful, introspective and thematically unified. And entirely lovely. The THE play it with especial intensity. I think this trio has become my favorite of all here.



The remainder of the set consists of equally well-played various single movements -- the 'Kakadu' variations, the Triosatz Hess 48, the Op. 44 Variations, and the one-movement B-flat Trio, WoO 39 -- as well as the three-movement B major Trio, WoO 38. And for lagniappe we get Beethoven's own trio arrangement of the familiar Op. 20 Septet, a light-hearted six movement serenade, played here with obvious pleasure by these so-talented Austrian musicians.



This set has given me almost inexhaustible pleasure and I heartily recommend it. And would even if it weren't at budget price. When you factor that in, you can't afford not to have this set. It's that good!



Scott Morrison"