Beethoven: Piano Trios Op 70 No 2 & Op 97, review

An intuitive collaboration between Alexander Melnikov, Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras brings sensitivity and lyricism to Beethoven's Piano Trios, says Geoffrey Norris

Piano Trios: Isabelle Faust in collaboration with Alexander Melnikov and Jean-Guihen Queyras Photo: Handout

By Geoffrey Norris

  

Beethoven: Piano Trios Op 70 No 2 & Op 97, 'Archduke' Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano), Isabelle Faust (violin), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello) Harmonia Mundi HMC 902125, £15.99

Put three such stylistically perceptive young musicians as Alexander Melnikov, Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras together and you can anticipate a result no less than stimulating. True to expectations, their playing, their sensitivity and the way they interact with each other lend their performances of Beethoven's final two piano trios both vitality and stature.

The slow introductory phrases of the E flat Trio Op 70 No 2 immediately define the ensemble's interpretative stance: the violin and the cello are virtually vibrato-less, and the keyboard is a fortepiano. In fact, it is a restored Viennese fortepiano of about 1828, somewhat later than either of these trios but not to the extent of being disturbingly anachronistic.

The instrument, which comes from Melnikov's own collection, has a lovely mellow, ample timbre with a pearly glow on which he capitalises in playing of refined shaping and clarity. Faust (on a 1704 Stradivarius) and Queyras (on a 1696 Giofredo Cappa) do not forsake vibrato altogether as the E flat Trio progresses, but they use it sparingly for expressive effect, in a manner that could well have been the norm in Beethoven's own day.

Equally, those phrases that they play with no vibrato at all take on an eerie, withdrawn quality that arrests the ear, not in a negative self-conscious way but as a reasoned, plausible component of a dramatic colour scheme. There is certainly no shortage of energy or conviction in their propounding of the musical arguments in the first movement or the scurrying, excitingly accented finale.

 

The point about the mix of grace and gruffness in the second movement is vividly brought to the fore, and is ameliorated by the singing lyricism that Melnikov, Faust and Queyras jointly bring to the mellifluous lines of the third.
The judiciously applied palette of weight, touch and tonal variety that so animates the E flat Trio is similarly in evidence in the great "Archduke". Here Melnikov, Faust and Queyras give the music proper space to breathe in the broad first movement while keeping a firm hand on the structural reins.
The playing throughout the trio is thoroughly attuned to the tone and emotional scope of the music, profoundly rapt in the andante and perkily whimsical, explosive and propulsive in the gloriously idiosyncratic finale.