The work common to these two recordings, it can be seen, is Mozart's so-called Kegelstatt Trio for clarinet, viola and piano. Surely one of his most beautiful pieces of chamber music, it does not get as many performances as it deserves, perhaps because it is not a very easy work to programme. But programming a recorded recital is another matter, and both these records provide good contrast and complements of quite different kinds. Yet there is a disappointment in that both Mozart performances seem to underestimate the romantic nature of the music. Antony Pay, Roger Chase and lan Brown, of the Nash Ensemble begin in a restrained, even rather cautious fashion clipping the phrases slightly; and the manner adopted by the Borodin Trio, with James Campbell here joining Yuli Turovsky and Luba Edlina is at first not dissimilar. But the Nash continue in this somewhat confined vein, whereas Campbell and the Borodin players proceed to expand though they do so with a tempo that, instead of providing room for the music, seems to make it rather heavy. There is not the natural flow which Mozart's ingeniously developed ideas demand. Matters are better in both performances with the Menuetto and Trio, where the music's unexpected energy (especially in the Trio) gives both groups encouragement to respond. The Nash are again somewhat cool with the wonderful, flowing theme of the finale, the Borodin are warmer.
The other works on the Borodin's record go delightfully. Haydn's bright, breezy Trio receives a cheerful performance, and Beethoven's Clarinet Trio is played with a quick appreciation of its varied moods, from the elegance of the Andante to the insouciance of the finale's set of variations on a tune from one of Weigl's contemporary successes at the Burgtheater, L'Amor marinaro. The Nash Ensemble's other works include, as well as the Fantasiestucke known to all clarinettists, the Marchenerzahlungen. Pay and Brown play these admirably, and their ravishing performance of the third of them is unforgettable.'