Search - Schubert, Borodin Trio :: Piano Trio in B-Flat

Good readings, sweepingly romantic, but poor timing

Discophage | France | 09/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The were the early days of the CD, when record companies thought they could just put on silver disc the content that filled an LP, and sell it for twice the price. And this is how Chandos published this CD with only the 43 minutes of Schubert's trio in B flat - all repeats taken. Well - maybe they could, back then, but in the face of the subsequent competition, it is now poor timing for your money.



And it is too bad, as the Borodin Trio contributes a fine reading of Schubert's piece, which attracted a mostly warm critical welcome when it was first published. It is a highly romantic version, with big string tone (and a resonant, hall-like sound pickup), full of sweeping, heart-on-sleeve gestures - very Russian indeed, and some may find it just a little too much so for Schubert. The opening "Allegro moderato" is lively and dynamic rather than genial and easy-going as in Istomin-Stern-Rose's classic account from 1964 (Sony), and suffers only from pianist Luba Edlina apt, at times very powerful but also somewhat homogenized piano playing - nothing as perky as Istomin's haydenesque, jaunty staccato - and some short instances where the players' sweep carry them away, resulting in some heavy-handed ends-of-phrases and pinched sound from the cello. The "Andante un poco mosso" is gently flowing, with soaring lyricism from violin and cello and again apt piano accompaniment but without the touch of digital imagination that Istomin or Hepzibah Menuhin (with brother Yehudi and Maurice Gendron, EMI, 1968) brought to it. The Scherzo is a perhaps hair to slow for Schubert's "Allegro" tempo indication but the Bordins phrase it with a lively piquancy, and commendably do not slow down in the central trio. Their Finale is nicely brisk and dynamic.



In sum, it is worth the buy if you can find it cheap.



"