Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Xyrion Trio :: Beethoven: Piano Trios Nos. 5 "Ghost" and 6

3.5 stars for youthful Beethoven with verve and propulsion

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 03/01/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The oddly named Xyrion Trio, formed 2001, is comprised of players that have recorded on the Naxos label previously -- cellist Maria Kliegel and painist Nina Tichman have recorded Beethoven's cello sonatas on the label. Violinist Ida Bieler was formerly concertmaster of the Gurzenich Orchestra-Cologne.



The trio adopt a youthful, vivacious approach to the Op. 70 trios from Beethoven's middle period. Their style is zippy and accented in a get with it format that eschews reflection, repose and subtlety. If you like middle Beethoven performed this way you will like this CD, which is exceptionally well recorded resulting in very truthful sound and extremely wide dynamic range.



However, if you are like me -- and like your Beethoven more mature with some subtlety -- you may be let down a bit by these performances. While the trio does a generally fine job in Op. 70 No. 1, called the "Ghost" trio for the tremelos in its largo, I found the players a bit detached going into that movement, especially the thin and quiet entry of the violin and cello in the movement.



What more disturbed me was the lack of subtlety and style in the Op. 70 No. 2 trio, one of Beethoven's most subtle works of chamber music. At the end of the first subject in the opening movement, before the repeat, the trio makes no attempt to change the pace or inflection of their attack. They simply keep on going at the same pace, ramming right through the composer's carefully enunciated transition as if it were just another bar line. Their soft-grained attack in the central figure of Allegretto also displayed unwily Beethoven style.



For me, the playing in this performance, however good it may be, is simply too rapid too often with too much razzle dazzle replacing sound musical judgment. It's not a bad performance and is miles ahead of the other Op. 70 recording on the Naxos label, the grizzly and loud performance by Stuttgart Trio. I would rank it similarly with the last recording I reviewed of these works, that by the Peabody Trio on Artek. The lilting Theme and Variations Op. 44 provides a makeweight that marginally improves the value of this issue.



For me, this recording is distant from the greatest recorded performances I have heard of these works. That list begins with the Suk Trio's performance on Supraphon released about 1983. Here is playing of stature and understanding on an exalted plane. Another great performance is the Casals-Istomin-Schneider collaboration, formerly on an inexpensive Sony CD. Unfortunately, both are out of print and unavailable. A couple Amazon sellers offer a used copy of the Suk Trio performance for $80 or more.



This leaves the Szeryng-Kempff-Fournier recording the best available I know. It is currently available in the trio's set of all Beethoven's trios. You can buy out of print renditions for varying amounts from collectors through Amazon. England's Florestan Trio recorded this repertoire in the past couple years to great reviews overseas. I haven't heard that recording and have found the Florestans to be lovely replicators but sometimes too precious in their work. In any event, their full price CD costs thrice the price of the Naxos CD here, which is a satisfactory introduction to anyone coming to this wonderful music for the first time."

Excellent Beethoven Trio Performances

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 10/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's a darn shame that most concert performances of Beethoven piano trios are primarily of the named ones - 'Archduke' and 'Ghost' - because the other trios are certainly worth hearing from time to time. Here, in what appears to be the beginning of a new series of Beethoven piano trio recordings on the Naxos label -- there's already been an earlier series by the Stuttgart Trio perhaps ten years or so ago -- is a disc that features the 'Ghost' and its Opus 70 mate, the E flat major trio. And for lagniappe we get the rarely heard Variations in E Flat Major, Op. 44. Two of the players are well-known to me from their earlier traversal of the Beethoven Cello Sonatas: Maria Kliegel, cello, and Nina Tichman, piano. I raved about those recordings here at Amazon. Tichman and Kliegel are joined here by violinist Ida Bieler, and they call themselves the Xyrion Trio. Tichman and Bieler are Americans, graduates of the Juilliard School, and long resident in Germany. Bieler is the former concertmaster of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne. Kliegel is a native of Germany but studied with, among others, Janos Starker at the University of Indiana in America.



There are many recordings of the 'Geistertrio' and many of them are wonderful. But if you don't have one of those recordings you could certainly do worse than acquire this budget release. It is not budget music-making, let me assure you. These are mature, musicianly, subtle instrumentalists. I don't know how long the Xyrion Trio have been playing together, but they sound completely in synch with each other.



But I'd like to focus on the E Flat Trio, Op. 70, No. 2. This is a sensational performance. One of my favorite middle-period movements by Beethoven is the gentle, slightly diffident second movement, the allegretto. It is played here with the right mixture of shyness and impulsiveness to give it its full due. That mixture of moods comes partly because it is a double set of variations, alternating themes and major/minor modes. Delicious. It is followed by a dancing third movement, also marked Allegretto (ma non troppo). It is a little unusual in that the violinist is given some double stops in the B section. The declamatory finale, Allegro, contains some virtuosic piano writing that Tichman handles with ease. I love this trio, and this is one of the best performances of it I've ever heard.



The 'Variations in E Flat, Op. 44' are, in spite of their opus number, from 1792 or thereabouts, early in Beethoven's career. He didn't publish them until 1804, hence the later opus number. They are definitely early Beethoven, though, sounding more like the Opus 1 piano trios than anything that came later. This is not great music, in my estimation, but it is played with fervor and panache by the Xyrion Trio.



So, for a good 'Ghost' trio and a wonderful Op. 70, No. 2 Trio in E Flat, this is a marvelous buy. I certainly hope the Xyrions will be recording the rest of the Beethoven piano trios.



Scott Morrison"