In his excellent liner notes Thai pianist Prach Boondiskulchok says that, when he, violinist Konrad Elias-Trostmann, and cellist Vladimir Waltham first formed the Linos Trio as students, the first work they played was Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night in a transcription by Eduard Steuermann, a pupil and disciple of the composer and pianist in his works. Querying the wisdom of initiating the ensemble by playing a transcription, Boondiskulchok says, “Who owns the music? The composer? The performers? What about when Liszt paraphrases Wagner? What about folk songs? In fact, the idea of the superior original version as intended by the author is a very recent construct.” So, for this album called “Stolen Music”, they have used Steuermann’s transcription plus three of their own.

Head over heels, the most effective is Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

It’s immediately atmospheric, with Elias-Trostmann holding a high harmonic note and Waltham playing a treble bass line around the centrality of Boondiskulchok’s pianissimo piano progressions. Then boom! The first brisk fortissimo attack. This is story-telling with the piano imitating the orchestra, and the staccato and pizzicato strings giving accent to the piano’s rhythms and melodies. Their playing is fullvoiced, and their grasp of form is reinforced by integral accelerandos.

It really is a virtuosic turn, enhanced by full, true sound and superb balances.

Ravel himself wrote a piano transcription of La Valse, which is so impossible it takes the direct intervention of God to play. At least here the pianist sheds some of the notes off to his two partners. La Valse is all about flow and rhythmic uplift.

The group’s flow makes it nearly impossible to sit still while listening.

… The strings’ seamless portamentos further enhance the flow, as does the pianist’s transparent touch. They end with an exceptionally thrilling finale, both arrangement- and performance-wise.

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