Nearly everything about these scrupulously prepared performances goes right in regard to tempo, balance, and ensemble calibration. However, there’s an interpretive elephant in the room, so to speak. Why such emaciated string tone in passages requiring tonal heft, sustaining power, and vocally informed phrasing.? The soaring main theme in the B-flat trio’s first-movement exposition is the most obvious case in point. And what about those long notes underneath the piano’s slow, arpeggiated chords in the Notturno? Do you want a masterful violinist and cellist supporting them, or Borrah Minevitch and his Harmonica Rascals?
The violin and cello lines throughout D. 929’s Andante con moto are basically Schubert lieder without words, yet why the threadbare, reticent projection? At the same time, the instruments’ timbral characteristics yield an attractive lilt and transparency to the D. 929 Scherzo’s canonic interplay and to the D. 898 Rondo Finale’s dotted rhythms. In short, you cannot deny the high level of polish and precision that Andreas Staier, Daniel Sepec, and Roel Dieltiens bring to these oft-recorded works, yet the Trio Wanderer (also on Harmonia Mundi) infuses these qualities with more warmth and expressive generosity in the two big works. The sparkling clear sonics and excellent annotations deserve special mention.
