Having issued, among much other repertoire, a well-received complete set of Beethoven’s output for piano trio, the Gould Trio now embark on Schubert’s music for the combination. Most trios go first for the grander, more serious and (even) larger E flat Second Trio, so it’s good to hear instead such a well-considered performance of its predecessor to open the series.
The long association between these players shows in their unanimity of approach.
The recorded balance, in the chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, just slightly favours the piano over the strings but nevertheless reveals the care taken over articulation and dynamics by all three players.
Theirs is a thoughtful, somewhat inward approach to this big-hearted work…
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The couplings on the Gould’s album are the magical (and almost obligatory) Notturno, a work it remains impossible not to be awed by, and a sequence of piano waltzes from around the same period, arranged for trio later in the 19th century by the composer Julius Zellner (1832-1900), which, like so much of Schubert’s late music, builds a structure of greater substance than its foursquare dance material might initially suggest.
All receive faultless performances…
