Search - Johannes Brahms, Storioni Trio :: Brahms: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 [Hybrid SACD] [Includes DVD]

Brahms Scintillates in the Hands of the Storioni Trio

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 12/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A couple of years ago I came across a recording of the Schubert piano trios by a group I'd never heard of, the Storioni Trio. Schubert: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 [Hybrid SACD] It's a group formed in the 1990s in Holland and is named for Laurentius Storioni, the 18th-century Cremonese maker of the Wouter Vossen's violin. I was impressed by the Schubert disc and noted that they had also recorded trios by Beethoven and by Julius Röntgen, the latter a late romantic German-Dutch composer coming in for a lot of attention recently. Somehow I never got around to getting the other two discs. But when I saw this new one I knew I had to have it, if only because as a pianist myself I have an enormous soft spot for the Brahms piano trios, having played them (admittedly rottenly) and grown to love them immoderately. I was not disappointed. If anything, I think the playing on this disc is better than on the Schubert issue. The Storioni struck me as Apollonian and classical in their approach to the Schubert trios and I assumed that would be the case here as well, but I was surprised to recognize how much more emotionally they play the obviously more overtly feelingful Brahms trios. Technically they are above reproach. The two string players are brothers -- Wouter and Marc Vossen -- and they play with an instinctive ensemble that surely has something to do with their lifetime relationship. The pianist, Bart van der Roer, is a sensitive player who resists any temptation, either from ego or from lack of control, to drown out his colleagues, always a potential problem for piano trios. Of course the wonderful balance on this disc is also partly due to the Pentatone engineers, all veterans of the venerable and respected Philips label. This is a hybrid SACD disc, playable in regular stereo on plain vanilla machines and in glorious surround sound on SACD rigs. One is embraced by full and lifelike sound in both formats.



For lagniappe there is a second disc included, a DVD containing audiovisuals of the trio playing the scherzo movement of the First Trio which appear to have been shot while they were making the audio recording of the trio in Valthermond, Holland, in 2007. It is good to see the group playing, to form a mental picture of this trio of musicians and to note that pianist Bart van de Roer plays without score. Alas, I am unlikely ever to see and hear them in person. Although, who knows, they may become as famous as that other internationally touring piano trio, the Florestan Trio, who, for many, have replaced the venerable and nigh-irreplaceable Beaux Arts Trio, now disbanded. So perhaps I will get to see them here in my corner of the USA one day.



All that said, this is a highly recommendable issue and I hope it is followed by another that includes Brahms's Third Piano Trio and perhaps moves on to the Piano Quartets as well.



Scott Morrison"