…
The British Gould Piano Trio has now set out to record [Marschner’s complete piano trios], and you can hear on the first album why the undertaking is absolutely worthwhile. Marschner has come a long way between the first trio of the almost 30-year-old from 1823 and his seventh and last, which was written a good three decades later. On the one hand, the early Romantic music of the A minor Trio, on the other, the emotional shallows, the mature design and the high-tension drama of the F major work composed at the Hanoverian court:
“the Gould Piano Trio celebrates the contrasts, makes music with joyful playing, precision and taste.”
The latter is particularly evident in the light-footed op. 29, where the musicians balance the lines well; the final movement is conclusively conceived and shaped from the piano. The pianist cultivates a tone of string-friendly flexibility, the strings, on the other hand, play very delicately, never with too thick a stroke. The fact that the ensemble writing in op. 167 is not only more interesting, but also highly exciting, is due to the independence that Marschner grants to the three voices here. A real discovery!
Loosely translated from the original German.
