Debussy's Piano Trio
Debussy's Piano Trio
Coupled with Fauré Piano Trio in D minor, Op 120 Ravel Piano Trio in A minor
Florestan Trio
Hyperion CDA67114 (66 · DDD) Buy from Amazon
The Florestan Trio has the ability to adapt its style to different kinds of music without any loss of conviction. After Brahms and Schumann comes this French disc showing it equally adept at entering the 1880 salon world of Debussy’s youthful Trio, Ravel’s brilliant exotic idiom, and the intimate, intense thoughts of Fauré’s old age. In the quicker movements Susan Tomes’s playing is remarkably light and precise. The finale of the Fauré, for example, has a scherzando quality that throws into relief the seriousness of the strings’ initial gesture. The string players are always ready to modify their sound to produce special expressive effects – the eerily quiet unison passage in Fauré’s Andante (track 2, 2’54”) or the vibrato-less duet in the Ravel Passacaille (track 10, 5’15”) – sounding wonderfully remote and antique. The clarity of the Hyperion recording allows the fantastical detail in the Ravel Pantoum to emerge. In the Debussy, the Florestan favour elegance rather than trying to search out expressive depths. Their freshness, imagination and purposeful directness makes this a top choice.
