Bridge Piano Trios Nos 1 and 2

Eloquent music-making – an essential acquisition for the Second Piano Trio

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Frank Bridge

Genre:

Chamber

Label: Naxos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: 8 570792

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Phantasy Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Piano Trio No. 2 Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 1), Movement: Minuet Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 1), Movement: Gavotte Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 1), Movement: Allegretto con moto Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 2), Movement: Romance Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 2), Movement: Intermezzo Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 2), Movement: Saltarello Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 3), Movement: Valse Russe Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 3), Movement: Hornpipe Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
Miniatures (Set 3), Movement: Marche Militaire Frank Bridge, Composer
Alexander Chaushian, Cello
Ashley Wass, Piano
Frank Bridge, Composer
Jack Liebeck, Violin
How encouraging to see Ashley Wass branching into Bridge’s chamber output – and with such gifted colleagues, too (violinist Jack Liebeck and cellist Alexander Chaushian are established solo artists in their own right). Back in August I heaped praise on the London Piano Trio’s account of the adorable, Cobbett Prize-winning Phantasie Trio from 1907 (“brain and heart are fully engaged”). Well, this Naxos newcomer is, if anything, an even more adroit and boldly characterised affair, if perhaps a mite less spontaneous-sounding than that Dutton rival. The three sets of Miniatures probably date from the following year and comprise nine exquisitely crafted and tuneful morsels originally intended for domestic use. They’re best dipped into rather than played at one stretch, but all are dispatched with sizzling panache and evident relish by these elegant performers.

Of course, the masterpiece here is the epic Second Piano Trio of 1929, one of Bridge’s most cogent, questing and durable utterances, whose radical language so bamboozled the largely conservative British critics of the period. Wass and company lend it exhilarating advocacy in a realisation of enviable security, unswerving concentration and burning conviction, making theirs for my money the first digital version to set alongside the Tunnell Trio’s classic 1976 performance (now happily restored on an unmissable Lyrita twofer, harnessed to the Allegri Quartet’s marvellous pioneering Argo recordings of the masterly Third and Fourth string quartets).

Tip-top production values from Andrew Walton and exemplary notes by Andrew Burn set the seal on an irresistible bargain. Dare we hope that Liebeck and Wass will now go on to give us Bridge’s Violin Sonata?

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