The pianist, Valerie Tryon, was of course well-known to English audiences before her emigration in 1971 to Canada, where she is now Artist-in-Residence at McMaster University. It was in 1986 that she joined Gerard Kantarjian and Coenraad Bloemendal to form Canada's Rembrandt Trio. In succession to earlier issues of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Arensky, here they aptly couple Brahms and his erstwhile protege, Dvorak, in performances recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, NY.
The booklet goes on to hail them for combining ''the warmth of sound and delicacy of nuance associated with European performances with the vigour and drive of the North American chamber ensembles—a stimulating blend of the best of the Old and New Worlds''. On this disc there is never a moment's doubt as to their warmth of sound and delicacy of nuance. All three are acutely sensitive, perceptive musicians. But in Dvorak's Dumky, with its mercurial alternations of melancholy and gaiety, I did wonder if their playing was just a little short on true Slavonic temperament. Here and there I would have liked more intensity in nostalgic song (not least from the lyrical cello) and more devil-may-care abandon in the livelier dance episodes. But it goes without saying that their refined phrasing and shading is infinitely preferable to the garish exaggeration often forced on these endearing Czech mood-pictures.
I liked Brahms's youthful B major Trio for its wholly natural flow—as if the players were carried along willy-nilly on the music's own tide. And never is the composer's full-bodied keyboard part allowed to dominate in this discerningly balanced performance, with its telling touches of textural colouring—such as Tryon's glinting treble towards the end of the Scherzo. The Adagio is allowed its Beethoven-inspired serenity, and the finale's big major-key second subject releases the group's full New World vigour and drive. As for the recording, there's a slightly boxy, covered quality about the lower register of the piano, particularly noticeable in the Brahms. But the sound is always agreeably mellow.'