Two recent discs by the multinational Linos Piano Trio deserve to be reviewed together. Both contain inventive arrangements made mostly by the group…
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[For In Search of Lost Dance] the Linos Trio play period instruments, Boondiskulchock’s velvet-toned 1882 Érard (similar to the one owned by Ravel) heard alongside the softer sound of gut strings. Ravel’s Piano Trio was completed in a rush, the outbreak of war in August 1914 prompting him “to get through five months’ work in five weeks” so that he could enlist. It’s a moody, unsettling piece, Ravel always ensuring that the three voices are properly balanced.
I like the second movement’s spikiness, and the sombre passacaglia is beautifully played.
And the finale’s ambivalence is brilliantly-conveyed – is the coda‘s triumph a hollow victory? The couplings offer some emotional relief.
A piano trio version of the Pavane is exquisite, as is an ingenious recasting of Le Tombeau de Couperin, the fugue’s separate lines wonderfully clear.
The closing “Toccata” also works brilliantly, the final bars unabashedly upbeat. Both discs are well-engineered and nicely-annotated, so buy the pair.
