Trio Wanderer / Catherine Montier / Christophe Gaugué SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet - Seven Romances

PIANO QUINTET - SEVEN ROMANCES

Trio Wanderer / Christophe Gaugué / Stéphane Logerot FRANZ SCHUBERT Trout Quintet

We expect technical finesse and a thoughtful interpretive approach from the Wanderer Trio; these attributes are shared by the two ‘extras’, and together they make up a notably well integrated quintet. This is a finely controlled, highly polished performance of the Trout, and the recorded sound is excellent, too. It’s a treat to be so clearly aware of the double bass’s contribution to the texture and rhythm, without feeling that the internal balance is at all unnatural. These players don’t put a foot wrong; they negotiate all the awkward corners – between Scherzo and Trio and back again, for instance – with great confidence and conviction; they use Schubert’s dynamics and accents to characterise and enliven the musical expression, most notably in the finale, and they find the most appropriate bright, sparkling sonorities for this most carefree of Schubert’s chamber works.
The degree of control and organisation does perhaps leave little room for the individuality and spontaneity that makes the 1957 Curzon/ Vienna Octet recording, or the more recent version with Brendel and Zehetmair, so life-enhancing. But this would still be high on my Trout list, and the CD’s appeal is increased by the Hummel, a powerfully dramatic work, played with terrific energy and imagination. Vincent Coq relishes Hummel’s beautiful cantabile writing, half way between Mozart and Chopin, and Christophe Gaugué makes the most of some memorable, melancholy viola solos. Altogether, the performance is most impressive in the way that its verve is matched with such a strong sense of integration and balance. (Duncan Druce /Gramophone)

Trio Wanderer SCHUBERT Trio Op. 100 - The Trout Quintet

Two of Franz Schubert's favorite works are coupled here on a disc celebrating the 30th anniversary of Trio Wanderer. One of his last compositions, the Op.100 Piano Trio was among the few late works Schubert heard performed before his death. The Trout was composed when Schubert was 22, but was published posthumously. This release includes a 2017 harmonia mundi catalog.

The Wanderers are among the elite piano, violin and cello combinations, and these great works are signature pieces: they take their name from the Schubert song and these pieces are cornerstones of their repertoire [previously available separately].

"The Wanderers and their friends play both works with irresistible freshness and brio, making one listen afresh to the glories of Schubert." The Sunday Times [The Trout]

“This is a finely controlled, highly polished performance of the Trout, and the recorded sound is excellent, too… Altogether, the performance is most impressive in the way that its verve is matched with such a strong sense of integration and balance.” Gramophone, September 2003 [The Trout]

”If the playing weren’t so delicate, refined, intelligent and colourful it might have felt more than a bit one-sided. As it is Trio Wanderer convince that this is a fully valid view of Schubert, brilliantly and feelingly executed.” Chamber Choice, BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 [Trio]

Trio Wanderer / Christophe Gaugué JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Quartet Op. 60 - Piano Trio Op. 8

A decade has passed since Trio Wanderer gave us a superb set of Brahms’ Piano Trios with the first Piano Quartet as filler. That recording set a benchmark thanks to the ensemble’s ideal balance of elegance and expressive intensity, so this sequel is long overdue.

The rarely heard first version of the Op. 8 Trio is a fascinating adjunct to that set and the Wanderers tackle the work with a different mindset, helping to delineate the self-critical composer’s maturing concision. They don’t linger as they did during the lengthy first movement, which Brahms initially over-egged with five themes, several of which were replaced by the lovely secondary subject.

Hanslick thought the fugato passage as inappropriate as a schoolboy Latin quotation in a love poem and the composer took note and cut it. The marvellous Scherzo he left well alone but for a few nips and tucks, however he wisely remodelled the middle of the slow movement; the mood swings of the original are superfluous with such animated flanking movements.

The last movement meanders through some tortured passages with a good third of the movement later excised and the clunky conclusion scrapped. While it’s an interesting example of a composer’s distillation I suspect most who love the familiar revision will only listen to this version once or twice as the younger man’s gaucheries wear thin.

The Piano Quartet, Op. 60 is another matter; a composer at the peak of his powers, a masterwork carefully crafted over 20 years with extraordinary cogency and thematic unity. This is a carefully judged performance of subtlety and discretion, a slow burn reading that lets the thematic development carry the narrative.

The Wanderers’ coolness at the opening soon thaws out but they keep a firm grip on the argument; they don’t overstate the sighing “Clara” figure in line with their classically poised view of the movement. The Scherzo has plenty of drive but the light touch avoids the overbearing. For the Andante they take the composer’s marking literally so it is a flowing interlude rather than a dirge while the Finale is more pensive than tragic.

If this implies a Brahms-lite quality rest assured that the Wanderers’ effortless panache and rhythmic energy compensates. It’s a valid alternative to the Capuçon/Angelich/Caussé reading on Virgin; an elegant cabernet rather than a big boofy shiraz. Sound is superbly present if a little opaque compared to the stunning transparency of the earlier set. (Warwick Arnold)

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