A Revealing Coupling, Wonderfully Played, at a Great Price
Christopher Smith | Atlanta, Georgia | 01/26/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It is a little difficult to procure a copy of the opus 70/2 without buying a complete set of Beethoiven's works for piano trio ensemble, and these complete sets often include a lot of lightweight filler material (mostly variations) that you won't really listen to all that much. Therefore, I was glad to see that Naxos coupled the 70/2 with the much better-known and more widely available "Ghost" trio, which is usually paired with the awesome "Archduke" trio. The "Ghost" is well known and rightly so. It is typical of the trubulent dimension of Beethoven's middle period and has a gloriously melancholy and foreboding slow movement. The 70/2 is a more spacious and meditative piece (not in the same league as the "Archduke" but excellent nevertheless), although it does have its fiery moments. For this reason, I think it is right that the two should be packaged together, since they perfectly encapsulate and illustrate the duality in Beethoven's compositions during his middle period. The Opus 70/2 is to the "Ghost" what the fourth piano concerto, the "Pastoral" symphony and the violin concerto are to the fifth symphony, the "Appassionata" and the "Emperor" piano concerto.
The playing is outstanding. The Stuttgart Piano Trio have some excellent recordings of Beethoven and Schubert under their belt (I've reviewed and highly recommended them elsewhere), and any purchase of their recordings is a safe bet re. quality of sound and depth of interpretation. They have played together a long time and it shows. For sheer, unsurpassable je ne sais quoi magic, I don't think anyone can beat the Kempff/Fournier/Szerbing(sp.?) set for its utterly transcendent rendering of the "Ghost" trio's slow movement, but that set is harder to find and more expensive. Also, there are the merits of Naxos's having the two opus 70 trios together, which I have already discussed. I see Naxos recordings have become a little more expensive on Amazon of late, but they're still the best bargain in the classical music industry. If you're a chamber music fan, and/or a Beethoven fan who wants to complement the essentials with some of those slightly lesser-known but by no means slight works, then this recording, and indeed the entire Stuttgart set of Beethoven's piano trios, is for you."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1