BBC Music Magazine, Misha Donat
Four Stars
This first instalment in the Gould Piano Trio’s complete Beethoven cycle has much to recommend it. The two shorter items here are particularly successful: the Allegretto in B flat, Wo 039, written in the wake of the Archduke Trio of 1811, and surely one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for beginners, and the Variations in E flat major, Op. 44 (c. 1792)…
“they’re played with a delicate touch that makes each of the variations a pleasure to listen to individually.”
The first movement of the Ghost Trio, Op. 70 No. 1, is performed with both repeats, which makes the serene coda all the more effective when it eventually arrives….
The recording, from a concert given in St George’s Bristol last year (and with applause after each item), is meticulously balanced.
