Press reviews

‘Russia has known great trio ensembles of soloists, the best-known of modern times being Gilels-Kogan-Rostropovich and Oborin-Oistrakh-Knushevitsky. Among specialist groups the Moscow Trio was paramount. The Brahms Trio can bear comparison with anyone: when I heard them in concert in London in 2015, I felt they stood out among their peers; and hearing a CD of two Brahms trios confirmed that impression.’

‘The performance of the Brahms Trio combines the lyricism, expressivity, elasticity, and tonal weight, and the more unrelenting forward drive and fiery urgency’.

‘The Brahms Trio present works by Arensky and Taneyev with elegance and brilliant musicianship – an excellent starting point for exploring all five volumes of this outstanding series’.

‘These three Russian virtuosos present the two trios with equal conviction, summoning up different palettes of colours for some truly high-level music-making. In the Arensky, their natural, speech-like delivery of the melody and their flexible rubato tug irresistibly at the heartstrings. In the Taneyev, they play with great seriousness of purpose, and also rise to the occasion when the composer steps outside his normal boundaries in the ferocious Scherzo – perhaps a reflection of the violence that overtook Russia in the Revolution of 1905’.

‘I think this is an excellent recording of both the trios, and the sound is beautiful—so beautiful that I liked the Rimsky-Korsakoff piece better than I ever have before’.

‘The central Adagio <…> has stood me still several times and nearly brought me to tears. Part of it is the perfect rubato impeccably executed. Most of what I review is newer music or, sometimes, older music by (frankly) lesser performers, so I don’t get to hear playing like this as often as I used to, when almost all my listening was for pleasure or discovery. <…> I plan to pick up another volume or two in this series, because the performances are indeed superb’.

‘Nothing sounds academic in their vibrant interpretation. The commitment is total and the clarity of the lines remains exemplary, the rich sound that they favour being accompanied by a constant respect for nuance. [...] The sorrowful Pezzo elegiaco that introduces Tchaikovsky's Trio is followed by an abundant and vigorous Tema con variazioni, the beautiful eloquence of the strings being enhanced by the spectacular outbursts of a veritable piano orchestra. The same intensity transcends Pavel Pabst's rare Trio, the performers showing great tenderness in the Rêverie and poignant romanticism in the breathless Finale’.

‘…there’s abundant charm, craftsmanship and – in the case of Korsakov’s C minor epic completed in 1939 by his son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg – ambition. […] César Cui’s miniature provides a pretty intermezzo, and what’s not to like about Borodin’s incomplete (finale-less) early trio of 1860? It’s pure bottled sunshine […] The biggest surprise comes last: what sounds like a genially heavy Austrian Ländler, the last completed movement is more reminiscent of a young Gustav Mahler’.

‘In the Largo, the playing of the Brahms Trio is eloquently expressive and impassioned […] even the Oistrakh Trio fails to match the depth of feeling achieved here by the Brahms players'.

‘I was much impressed by the Brahms Trio's recording of Tchaikovsky's piano trio. I've been strangely drawn to it since I first heard it a few weeks ago, and I've returned to it several times. The recording is warm and genuine. I've often found the piece somewhat over-sensitive, especially in classical recordings such as the Barenboim-Zuckerman-Du Pré on EMI, but the Brahms Trio's reading of the work is more restrained. Tchaikovsky is a great composer who can always teach us something about life and emotion, and a more austere reading of his music further emphasizes the weight of the work itself.'

‘The Brahms Trio’s performance […] is notable for its intensity of expression and also benefits from the sumptuous tonal quality of the string players and the fluent, spirited playing of pianist Natalia Rubinstein. The initial statement of the elegiac main theme of the first movement is beautifully shaped by violinist Nikolai Sachenko, with phrasing that fosters a seamless flow. […] In the rhapsodic sonata-allegro Finale, where the thematic material is derived from ideas found earlier in the work and is woven into a highly involved contrapuntal development, the Brahms players’ account is powerfully thrusting, propelled by their usual combination of forceful stresses and bass-oriented tonal weight. For me, the Brahms Trio’s treatment better captures the sense of exaltation and triumph that is called for here. […] All of the recordings discussed have merit and give pleasure, but that of the Brahms Trio is one I would not want to be without’.

‘My experience reviewing three of the previous releases in this series has conditioned me to expect excellent playing from the Moscow-based Brahms Trio, and its performances here are fully consistent with its outstanding record. It plays here with a spontaneity and passionate abandon that does not compromise precision, and with sensitivity and refinement where that is required. The string players draw upon their ample tonal resources, and pianist Natalia Rubinstein displays an admirable bravura technique’.

‘After a first salvo of very enthusiastic releases, Naxos continues its musical explorations in Russia with the excellent Brahms Trio. Declaimed with vigour and intelligibility, as did the Heifetz, Pyatigorsky and Pennario trio in the past, and tinged with a delicate chiaroscuro, sublime Arensky’s Trio gains in clarity […] how striking the first movement is, both logical in its construction and poignant in its expression! And how the Scherzo, though devoid of any frenzy, knows how to be piquant! It is with the same mastery as in Taneiev's work, but with added engagement, that the performers make their own way through the Brahmsian entanglements of the Op. 22 Trio. Throughout the four movements, the sunshiny strings are shrouded, sometimes imperceptibly, by a piano of abyssal compacity. (Marvellous Andante espressivo)’.

‘The Brahms Trio […] has found an ideally balanced tutti sound that also leaves nothing to be desired in terms of playing technique in the narrower sense. Such qualities are rare even among renowned piano trio. In addition, the ensemble is able to make music in a truly chamber-musical manner, i.e. to adapt the ensemble playing intimately to the differentiated structure of the musical movement and to follow it. The Trio op. 25 by Vladimir Dyck, for example – with all its melancholy reminiscent of Brahms – bears a powerful dramatic impulse that is not only carried and played out by the notoriously richly toned piano part, but which is also always nuanced and individualised by the both string instruments: less through volume or power than through intensity and melodic emphasis. In this way, the music is not only structured, but also expressively enlivened. With such recordings, the Brahms Trio helps composers' works that are all but forgotten achieve very convincing effects’.

‘The performance is always full of tension and as clear as it is lyrically passionate. Very rewarding!’

'The strings of the Brahms Trio define the beginning of Arensky's first piano trio with their warm, velvety and rich sound. [...] In the Scherzo, with the staccato theme and the pizzicati of the strings as well as the sparkling garlands of the piano, the Brahms Trio tickles our ears like elves. The centrepiece, however, is the third movement 'Elegy'. [...] Beauty and sincere sadness resound in the cantilena for cello. Kirill Rodin presents it in a darkened yet extremely expressive manner, with a broad bowed legato [...] The second movement of Sergei Yuferov's Piano Trio in C minor. This melodically rich, powerful and colourful Adagio performed by the Brahms Trio has a breathtaking beauty. [...] For the discovery of this work alone, one cannot but thank the Brahms Trio. [...] Anyone who likes to explore new paths off the beaten track should listen not only to this CD, but also to all five of the currently released History of Russian Piano Trios series’.

‘ It’s a substantial 40-minute work of alternately melancholy, passionate, and virtuosic music that is immediately appealing in this interpretation. César Cui’s short, charming Farniente leads to Alexander Borodin’s Piano Trio, some twenty minutes long, which is joyfully alert in the outer movements, lyrical in the middle Andante, and blossoms as rarely before in the Brahms Trio’s splendid performance’.

'Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's C minor Piano Trio [...] is truly astonishing in its scale, especially in the outer movements. The Brahms Trio plays thrillingly and sonorously, rendering the rich dark colours well and giving spice where it is needed to structure the two large-scale allegro movements. This is particularly impressive in the finale, where, after a sombre introduction, the perfectly balanced dynamic explosion in the trio provides maximum impact. But the two inner sections also attract attention: after the touching scherzo Allegretto, the marvelously performed Adagio impresses, ten minutes of which fly by unnoticed.'

'Their fiery passion is Russian music, and the series features such an impressive array of Russian trios that you forget that you didn't always just listen to this music and love it. [...] If you want to learn about Russian music of the Romantic and late Romantic era, when Russia still had a tsar and upper nobility who had time to drink tea, read Pushkin and look at Fabergé eggs, then The History of the Russian Piano Trio is great for that.'