Two recent discs by the multinational Linos Piano Trio deserve to be reviewed together. Both contain inventive arrangements made mostly by the group, the first disc containing an intriguing selection of fin-de-siècle works. The album’s title refers to Stravinsky’s comment about great composers stealing rather than borrowing, pianist Prach Boondiskulchock’s notes reminding us that transcriptions and arrangements were the only way for many music lovers to hear new works until the advent of recording.
If an arrangement can make me temporarily forget what the source material sounds like, it gets my vote, and hearing how violinist Konrad Elias-Trostmann phrases the opening of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune won me over within seconds.
The introduction to Dukas’s L’apprenti sorcier is incredibly atmospheric here, the piano’s loud clipped chords at 2’03” like being poked with a sharp stick.
Vladimir Waltham makes a persuasive case for Dukas’s bassoon theme played on cello, and the pacing is just right.
Things get genuinely scary, and the sorcerer’s last words have plenty of impact. Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht comes in pianist Eduard Steuermann’s idiomatic arrangement, lighter and brighter-sounding than the crepuscular original.
The disc concludes with a heady take on Ravel’s La Valse, its bite undiminished.
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Both discs are well-engineered and nicely-annotated, so buy the pair.
