Op 97

[Todd]

With multiple Beethoven works or genres, I've ended up with accidental or haphazard collections, as I've never taken the time to systematically work my way through them.  The Piano Trios represent a perfect case.  I have rarely made it a point to buy the Piano Trios to buy the Piano Trios.  More typically, I discover and artist or explore an artist's discography and end up with some or all of the works.  I've ended up with a decent collection, and for this Beethoven year, I figured I'd go with the big one, the Archduke, Op 97, because I've never systematically listened to a lot of recordings. 



Where better to start than with the earliest recording in one's collection?  Here the famous 1926 recording from the Casals-Cortot-Thibaud trio.  The performance attributes are of the time, with gobs of portamento, unlimited vibrato, and rubato everywhere and all the time, just because.  Whether one would want to describe the leisurely opening movement as Allegro moderato could be debated since it sounds more Andante, but make no mistake, for the all ancient practices and note imperfection, the playing sounds romantic and committed, with the players delivering on their reputations.  The Scherzo maintains the leisurely feel, anchored by Cortot's often light playing.  The string sound sounds both out of place and effective.  That holds even more true in the Andante, where all that gooey portamento lends a probably too romantic by half sound, but Thibaud and Casals, in particular, nail the sound and the feel.  The finale movement never packs the musical punch of later versions, but it sounds effective and lived in, as though the artists had performed it before, and as always with ancient electrical recordings, it has a live feel that hits the spot.  Of course the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, but the transfer works effectively enough.  Not one to turn to as a first choice nowadays, but one to have in a collection.

[Todd]

The best place to go next certainly seems like the Beaux Arts Trio, and then with the first recording.  Vintage BAT opens with an Allegro moderato that sounds just about right tempo-wise, and a bit more right dynamics wise.  The trio back off in some slower sections, but plays the faster sections at a nice clip, with a certain pluckiness.  The Scherzo is brisk and the epitome of classical in delivery, not too heavy, not bogged down, and delightful.  In contrast, the Andante starts with promising piano playing and even more promising unison string playing and then over the broadly timed movement, beauty and tuneful middle period LvB depth are the order if the day.  The ensemble sees no reason to change it into something late period or excessively romantic.  The finale caps things off with fun and elegant and spunky playing.  Very nice, as one expects from the BAT.

[Todd]

It only makes sense to go with the second BAT recording next.  Slightly newer BAT start with an Allegro moderato that sounds a bit too slow and cautious, if undoubtedly supremely highly polished.  Pressler occasionally seems more front and center than in the earlier recording, though the strings do fine work.  The movement as a whole lacks enough energy to satisfy.  Things pick up in the more spritely yet elegant Scherzo.  One would expect a superb Andante, but curiously, while slow and lovely, it also sounds comparatively shallow and more about polish and prettiness than anything else.  Fortunately, the trio ends with a peppy and fun and surface-y final movement.  Everything is performed and recorded at a high level, it just misses for me.

[Todd]

Henryk Szeryng, Pierre Fournier, and Wilhelm Kempff.  While established piano trios that perform as piano trios have certain advantages, namely that they play together as piano trios more frequently, individual artists collaborating together can also compel.  A case in point, this rather famous trio recording.  The assembled artists do not typically come to mind when one thinks of high voltage playing, so the Allegro con brio has the expected softer edge.  Kempff leads things off with a measured, lovely sound, appropriately Beethovenian, and then Szeryng and Fournier join.  Of course they can and do play in unison with no little refinement, and Kempff just sort of spins out musical doodles.  It's lower energy than ideal, and it should not work, yet, gosh darnit, it most certainly does.  It's like a comfort recording.  This becomes almost ridiculously evident in the Scherzo.  It definitely should have more pep, yet with Kempff just sort of joyfully plinking along, and Fournier lending his rich tone, and Szeryng offering support that blends right in, and it does work.  With such an overall approach, one would definitely expect the Andante to work, and boy does it.  Singing and lyrical, the trio have a trick up their sleeve when the introduce what sounds like playfulness into the mix.  Beauty and fun.  Nice.  The last movement sort of dances along, in a languid but fun and relaxed reason.  Really, it should not work, but it does.  Go figure.

[Todd]

The Suk Trio.  The trio opens with a nicely paced Allegro moderato, with each instrumentalist sounding distinct and quite nice, given the age of the recording.  Josef Chuchro does not generate a fat cello sound, but he does create a tight one.  Suk does his high grade thing and Panenka accompanies ably, as expected.  There's something of a rustic sound, and certainly not a super-polished sound, and the music unfolds tunefully through the end.  Chuchro's tighter sound pays some dividends in the Scherzo, and Panenka shows an ability to play with energy and delicacy simultaneously that really works nicely.  The Andante sounds nice enough, but it also sounds sort of straight-forward to the point of uneventfulness most of the time.  Only when the violin and cello alternate is there musical fire.  It's all well played, to be sure, there's just not enough.  The ensemble ends on a strong note in the with a rhythmically vital and engaging final movement.  Overall, while there are certainly things to enjoy, it's not a favorite. 

[Todd]

Trio Italiano.  Pianist Giovanni Battista Rigon opens the Allegro moderato in measured, broad fashion, laying the ground work for violinist Sonig Tchakerian (the reason I bought the recordings) and cellist Teodora Campagnaro to enter with a broad, large scaled sound.  Arts goes for the audiophile recording approach, and does it right, as the perfectly distanced microphones allow ample low-level dynamic variation to emerge while also letting the trio sound quasi-orchestral in the loudest passages.  Campagnaro ends up standing out of the mix, generating a rich, big tone and displaying very fine control, including in wonderful pizzicati.  She pops out of the right channel with exemplary energy, and when she and Tchakerian go back and forth, or play in unison, as with the pizzicati mirroring the piano, the effect charms the listener.  This is a lyrical take.  The Scherzo starts out plucky as all get out, backs off a bit quite nicely, and then goes plucky again.  Here, it's Tchakerian's turn to pop out a bit.  It's the whole ensemble who get to in the Andante, which sounds achingly beautiful here and begins to take on a late-LvB sound.  Perhaps the one fault here is that the concluding Allegro moderato ends up just a bit too moderato.  A bit more snap and energy would have made for an even more excellent closer.  Overall, though, this is a high grade effort.

[Todd]

I suppose it's as good a time as any to go HIP.  Anner Bylsma, Vera Beths, and Jos van Immerseel recorded their take on the Vivarte label, and after the dreadful Kreutzer, also featuring Immerseel, I had trepidations about this recording.  I had not listened to it since I bought the big Vivarte box years ago, so I had no real memories of it.  Fortunately, things go more swimmingly.  First of all, Immerseel's instrument sounds close enough to a proper piano so that it never sounds feeble, and he does not get overpowered by the other instrumentalists.  Second, Anner Bylsma.  Third, Vera Beths, while not Bylsma quality, does fine fiddling.  The trio sounds like a trio.  And there's energy aplenty in the Allegro moderato, with the HIPsters doing the fast HIP thing, but not too fast.  Also, in some loud passages, one hears very heavy hints of Schubert, namely Die Forelle.  Aided by sweet, still nearly SOTA sound, one gets a larger scale sound that one would think going in.  Not surprisingly given the opener, the Scherzo is all pluck and fun.  Richness and tunefulness sound a bit compromised, but not enough to detract.  The Andante also shows the comparative limitations of a period keyboard as the quicker sustains drain some of the drama from the music, but the trio compensates for this by playing the music comparatively briskly, and with hints of depth and drama.  It works quite well.  The flipside of the instruments, particularly the keyboard, not ideally suiting the Andante, is that they suit the final movement much better.  Immerseel generates enough dynamic range to satisfy, and Bylsma and Beths work in conjunction with one another quite nicely, thank you. 

[Todd]

Young Barenboim, Zukerman, and du Pré.  The recording seems to mostly Barenboim's show, with him setting the overall tempo and feel, and that tempo is broad, and that feel is romantic and laid back.  The Allegro moderato sounds more like a languid, lovely Andante, and young Pinky, in particular, delivers some of that lovely tone of this, and du Pré sounds fine, too.  The Scherzo also comes off a bit broad, but less so than the opener, and the playing sounds fairly light and fluid and playful.  With a laid back approach, one might reasonably expect a lovely Andante, and one gets that, but in addition, one also gets some with more animation, more dynamic vitality, more passion than one might expect.  Nice.  The final movement sounds peppier and more playful, bringing out Beethovenian humor very well.  Better than most really.  It's an enjoyable overall performance, but not one I will reach for first or second in the future.

[Todd]

Jascha Heifetz, Emmanuel Feuermann, and Arthur Rubinstein.  With Heifetz in the mix, one is nearly guaranteed some brisk music making.  While not at all rushed, the Allegro moderato does have a brisker than normal feel, and the trio amplifies that a bit as they tend to play a bit quicker in the forte passages.  Unlike with some other Heifetz recordings, here he is joined by other strong personalities, and even if the violin gets sonic attention, it's more placement due to the ancient age.  Things rev up a bit in the Scherzo, and if energy and excitement rate pretty highly, super tight ensemble doesn't.  The Andante likewise gets the rushed treatment, sometimes a bit too much.  The final movement likewise gets pushed a bit, but the nature of the music makes it work a bit better.  The recording certainly has its merits, but overall it's not really my speed.

[Todd]

The KLR Trio.  From one of the most ridiculous download bargains on the market, the KLR show the advantages of longstanding partnerships.  Kalichstein starts things off on in the Allegro moderato at a slightly measured but fully satisfying pace, then Laredo and Robinson join in.  Their unison playing, split left and right with the piano smack dab in the middle of the soundpicture, works splendidly, and both generate a rich tone.  There's gracefulness and robustness.  The Scherzo comes off as relaxed, light, and lilting, with the violin and cello again sounding swell.  When needed, Kalichstein takes center stage, but things are more blended; he sees no reason to control things like Barenboim.  The Andante is delivered as a continuous flow of lyrical beauty and no little depth, hinting at later LvB style without sounding heavy.  The final movement has pep and lyricism and humor in a superb blend, with the trio exchanging musical laughs, and the long piano trill before the faux angry outburst in the Presto a real hoot.  A most excellent version.  The MP3 transfer here sounds quite fine.  This may mean that the lossless recording is SOTA.

[Todd]

Sviatoslav Richter, Mikhail Kopelman, and Valentin Berlinsky.  Richter and friends take the opening Allegro moderato at a broad pace, yet they do an excellent job creating drama and weight, slowly building to a hefty coda, with some Schubert Trout like playing in there. The Borodin guys do their thing superbly in an old school Russian quartet sort of way.  This is the antithesis of HIP.  They then make the slightly broad Scherzo sound adequately quick and energetic in a very serious, almost devotional sort of way.  With the style of playing, and more so the artists, one expects an Andante of depth, slowness, and weight.  One gets it.  It comes close to being too serious, too dour, and Richter lends both perfect support and some phrasing that sounds almost lifted out of Op 110 in places.  If one dislikes rubato, this movement may be just too much, but it really works very well, indeed.  Only in the final movement might the judicious overall tempo be said to be too slow, though every other aspect of the playing sounds pretty nifty.

[Todd]

The Xyrion Trio.  Distantly recorded but clear, and with wide dynamics as a result, the trio deliver a not especially fast Allegro moderato that sound faster than it is.  The playing eschews romantic excess, and veers close to austere classicism, or a modernist-classical hydbrid in style.  The string players meticulously work off each other, on par with anyone, and Nina Tichman's piano playing sounds similar in some ways to Oliver Schynder's, though a tad less sleek.  The Scherzo ramps up the more energetic playing style from the first movement for most of the duration.  In a version more focused on energetic playing, one might expect the Andante to fare comparatively less well.  In some ways it does not, in that it is not especially beautiful, but it retains an appealing tension and grit.  The final movement revs things up even more than in the first movement, and ends with a beefy, quasi-orchestral coda.  While not the best, or at least not my favorite, the Xyrion show that they can play with the big boys.

[Todd]

Something new and fresh seemed like a good next step, so the Van Baerle Trio got the nod.  The presence of Hannes Minnaar and the bargain basement download price prompted me to buy this set, and talk about fortuitous timing and pricing.  Minnaar opens the Allegro moderato with gorgeous, smooth playing, and the string players come in right behind him to do the same thing.  The overall tempo is a bit relaxed, but the feel is a bit peppier than one would expect - though not too peppy.  The overriding feel is of souped-up Mozart, and in the potentially Schubertian passages, Mozart again seems a better non-LvB comparison.  (And Minnaar's trills have a near hypnotic effect.)  There's elegance and refinement, but no dullness.  As good as Maria Milstein and Gideon den Herder play, Minnaar is the star of the show, without really trying to be.  He never dominates the proceedings in terms of dynamics or obviously controlling tempo, but his playing seems a bit better, it sparkles more, it just sounds more right.  His right hand playing, in particular, sounds nuanced to the Nth degree.  Nice.  With Minnaar's stupid good right hand playing (and also stupid good left hand playing), the Scherzo cannot but be superb, all bubbly and fun music making with a dance-like rhythm mixed with some supremely fine string playing.  The trio play the Andante on the very slightly swift side, adding a bit of tension to the otherwise very beautiful and sometimes serene feel.  Hints of Mozartean sound remain, but so does more boisterous Beethoven, here delivered with a light and humorous touch, with most impressive corporate dynamic shading.  The final movement bubbles, with Minnaar again delighting with his playing, though here the strings do everything just so, and the coordinated sections between all three instrumentalists will put a smile on all but the stoniest listeners faces.  Tip top sound goes along with a tip top version.  The Van Baerle need to get down to the serious business of recording the core rep, Haydn and Brahms next.

[Brass Hole]

These are my favorite of Schumann's Symphony No 3 "Rhenish" Op. 97:

[Todd]

The Oliver Schnyder Trio.  The Oliver Schnyder pull off the opposite trick from the Van Baerle by making their slightly faster opener sound slower than it is.  Partly due to recording, partly due to style, the trio sounds more blended, and here all are equals, and the sound, while not as transparent, allows for even more dynamic range, with the cello especially benefiting, as Benjamin Nyffenegger demonstrates his ability to generate a big, fat tone.  The sound-world is more squarely Beethovenian, with weight and depth and a perfect middle period blend of classicism and emerging romanticism, and little Beethovenian gestures everywhere.  More than many others, the trio also creates a quasi-orchestral sound, too.  The trio go for an unabashedly swift and playful Scherzo, emphasizing Beethoven's outsize gestures, stark contrasts, and punchy if somewhat metronomic rhythm.  The trio keep the Andante tight, with super-clean ensemble playing, and the trio namesake more than willing to cede the limelight.  Tunefulness, forcefulness, and ample scale blend together in a museum quality manner.  Most excellent.  The final movement starts off somewhat reserved in terms of tempo, but rather generous with dynamic contrasts and weight, creating that quasi-orchestral feel again.  Superb sound caps off another superb contemporary take.

[Brass Hole]

Another important Op 97 is Dvorak's String Quintet No 3 "American". I favor these three recordings:

[Todd]

The Capuçon bruhs and Frank Braley.  Erato's go-to siblings and regular partner Braley seemed like a sure thing, and they are.  Braley starts things off with a somewhat distant sounding, coloristically limited intro, then the more prominently miked brothers appear, delivering rich sounding playing that doesn't delve too deep.  While sonic perspective may not be ideal, apparent dynamic range cannot be at all faulted.  On a purely note-hitting basis, it's pretty darned difficult to fault any of the musicians as they let the music unfold in a leisurely, slightly romanticized, but also cool fashion.  The Scherzo also gets the leisurely treatment, but here more than in the opener, Braley's fine playing comes to the fore.  Judicious dynamics, a more than occasionally gentle sound, and bright right hand playing lay the foundation for somewhat languid but smooth as silk string playing.  Gautier, in particular, produces a most appealing, singing tone.  The Andante stays somewhat broad, but like some other ensembles, the trio opts to play the piece with comparatively more tension.  The interplay between strings is the thing, even with Braley's forte playing jumping out here and there.  Scale gets upped a bit, though not quite like the Oliver Schnyder Trio, which ends up being rectified in the closing movement, where a bit more speed and energy gets introduced as well.  Braley, in particular, puts in some effort, as the vocalizations indicate, and the whole thing sounds snazzy.  An excellent take, if not a top pick.

[Todd]

Trio Owon.  As in other Beethoven year surveys, I saved my established favorite for last, to see if it remains my favorite.  Emmanuel Strosser starts things off basically perfectly, with tonally lustrous, flowing playing, then Olivier Charlier and Sung-Won Yang enter, both entirely unafraid to use more than a little vibrato, and both produce a singing tone, with the great Sung-Won Yang especially good.  But that's really just a part of it.  The ensemble creates a perfect sense of scale without effort, and they also deploy corporate rubato in perfect unison and vary dynamics, macro and micro, with an effortlessness and seamlessness beyond what most other ensembles offer.  The KLR probably are the only ensemble to fully match them.  The approach offers the best blend of romanticism, modernism, and Gallic elegance of this group of recordings.  The Scherzo reinforces this.  Sung-Won Yang starts things with his super-tight playing, then Strosser and Charlier enter and do their part.  The emphatic accenting and striking dynamic control, mixed with the flowing rhythm and perfect tempo shifts, yield something far beyond average.  In the Andante, the trio slow way down, and Strosser kicks things off with large scaled, richly hued playing, where the harmonies seduce the listener before the romanticized strings play in perfect unison, with hypnotic vibrato.  It borders on Beethoven informed by Brahms, but, well, that's a good thing.  The movement flows along, an always gorgeous, occasionally dramatic wonder, music fully ensconced in middle period Beethoven, with more than hints of the late period.  The final movement starts off a swirl of musical and buoyancy, anchored by Strosser's pianism, completed with dazzling runs, which allows the string players to launch into their own flights of fancy.  Intriguingly, even with Yang in the mix, the piano does sort of become the center of attention here.  And it all works.  Splendiforously.  Yep, it easily remains my favorite.

[Todd]

Top Tier
Trio Owon
Van Baerle Trio
Oliver Schnyder Trio
KLR Trio


Second Tier
Trio Italiano
Capuçons/Braley
Casals/Cortot/Thibaud
Bylsma/Beths/Immerseel


Third Tier
BAT I
Xyrion Trio
Szeryng/Fournier/Kempff
Richter/Kopelman/Berlinsky


Fourth Tier
Barenboim/Zukerman/du Pré
Suk Trio
BAT II
Heifetz/Feuermann/Rubinstein

[Brahmsian]

These are my favorite of Schumann's Symphony No 3 "Rhenish" Op. 97:

A wonderful Opus 97!  Thank you for mentioning it.  Personally, I do love the brisk pace that Zinman/Tonhalle Orchester Zurich do on the Schumann symphonies.