Album Reviews

Is this performance of one of Dvorak’s most popular and oft-recorded piano trios likely the most authoritative or finely played? Not likely, given competition from Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Young Uck Kim among the many others by well- established ensembles and/or instrumentalists. This trio does play it very well, however.

Is it the or among the finest every recorded? Probably. Is it played by the most attractive-looking ensemble ever to record the piece? That can be said with complete confidence!

Okay, how shallow can I be? Even shallower, actually, so don’t challenge me, okay?

You don’t have to be a chamber music fan to appreciate Dvorak’s folky, melodic work. In fact, it makes for a very tuneful and pleasant introduction to the genre and knowing the looks of the gals sawing away on the cello and violin and fingering those black and whites, doesn’t hurt! Oh, there I go again.

The recording is gorgeous: warm, spacious and everything you love about analog that digital just can’t give you, which makes the rarity of this—a new, live to two track analog classical music recording all the more special.

The violin is silky-rich and real sounding stage right (on the left), while the cello is deep, sonorous and full stage left. The piano, center stage is palpable and appropriately liquid. The recording exudes warmth, transparency and three-dimensionality as the confines of the space are subtly suggested in the delicate acoustic set up around the players.

The third movement “Poco Adagio” (a bit slow) will melt even the hardest rocker. I suspect the older guys will bring more intense “game” to the “Allegro Con Brio” (quick and lively) but the ladies do a nice job with it and being a classical music ignoramus I should probably just shut up and say if you’re looking for a sophisticated but accessible piece to show off just how spectacularly natural your system can sound, you can’t go wrong with this. If it doesn’t sound as if this trio is arrayed on stage not far from where you sit, your system needs work.