CLASSICAL
Album: Beethoven: Trios, Opus 1, Nos. 1 And 3 This recording marks the Peabody Trio's second release of works by Beethoven (the group recorded the Opus 70 trios in 2004). With this effort, the trio, celebrating its 20th anniversary, hits a home run. The members' extreme focus, lack of ego, and purity of sound testify to their commitment to serving the music first. The performances on this album effervesce, take flight, and soar.
The transition Beethoven makes in these two trios, published in 1795, is a fascinating study-from the perfected Viennese Classical style (influenced by his teacher Joseph Haydn) in Trio No. 1-to the great No. 3 Trio in C minor, which asserts itself in the moody, fiery vernacular associated with his most famous works, such as the Fifth Symphony. With these trios, his first works to carry an opus number, the composer announces to all that a new era has arrived.
Clocking in around 33 minutes, Trio No. 1 in E[musical flat] major displays an expanse of form and substantive writing that includes extended cello lines and an added movement that raises chamber music to a higher level. In the first movement, Allegro, pianist Seth Knopp is brilliant: his playing is super-crisp, clean, and articulate.
In the sweet and somewhat regretful Adagio cantabile, all three players seem fused as one, perfectly balanced in dynamics and sound color, their voices gentle, sincere, and heartfelt. Violinist Violaine Melançon's restraint of vibrato and simple cantabile tone enhances the longing, aching emotion of the movement. Natasha Brofsky's cello blends beautifully as well, her phrasing sensitively matched to that of Melançon, though she should have asserted herself more, especially in dialogue with the violin.
Some of my favorite moments here are Knopp's sparkling, light staccato at the end of the Andante cantabile con variazioni of Trio No. 3, as well as the humorous finale of Trio No. 1. The players deftly navigate the waves of constant rhythmic zig-zags and heart-pounding presto passagework. It's during the faster movements in both trios that the Peabodys really show their maturity, their unfaltering focus as a group never wavering.
---
© Copyright 2008, Strings
