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Fanfare Magazine, May/June 2009
I am wondering how many readers first heard the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio, his masterpiece in chamber music, in the 1950 recording by Rubinstein with Heifetz and Piatigorsky. For decades that recording has seemed definitive to this listener: I am fond even of the cover of the LP. Of course the sound is relatively pinched, and many will favor the excellent recordings of recent years, including the Beaux Arts recording of the 1970s, which is flawed only by their weird omission of the eighth variation in the third movement. More recently still, we have the curiously cold-sounding recording on Sony with virtuoso pianist Yefim Bronfman, or a recording with Martha Argerich that seems less cohesive than, for instance, the wonderful performance by the Trio Passionato, a much less celebrated group of musicians. I’d recommend this new recording by the Nobilis Trio in the same breath. Its deeply engaged playing is beautifully recorded in a spacious soundstage that lets the music expand naturally. Yes, they also play the eighth variation, a fugue that is perhaps academic in its working out, but fits in its place. It’s a variation in texture and style that is no more offensive than the little waltz that precedes it by a few minutes. What a joy to follow the Nobilis trio as it almost falls into that waltz variation; it’s as if the music were dancing with them.
To the Tchaikovsky has been added the set of variations by the Nobilis pianist, Stephen Prutsman. It’s much in the Tchaikovsky style, a deliberately Romantic style that seems mostly unaffected by the last century or so of music. As such, it is amusing, though some might reasonably prefer second works like the Arensky Trio that Bronfman and crew offer, or the Ravel Trio played by Rubinstein. Nonetheless, this is one of the best recordings available of one of Tchaikovsky’s masterworks. I recommend it highly. Michael Ullman
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