The Eroica Trio consists of violinist Adela Pena, cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio, and pianist Erika Nickrenz. According to the booklet notes, an earlier album of theirs was nominated for a Grammy. However, if you were to judge from this release of catchy tangos from South American composers, the Eroica Trio isn’t quite ready to take its act on the road. The problems on this disc have mostly to do with Nickrenz’s pianism–her touch, to be specific. It’s far too aggressive and calls for a more discriminating studio engineer who knows the performance habits of the soloists better than he (or she) apparently does. Nickrenz’s blisteringly percussive assertions on the piano are evident from the very beginning, disrupting Astor Piazzolla’s wonderful Primavera Portena and fairly well wrecking the entire performance of Revolucionario. However, when the music calls for a more mitigated approach, as in Joaquin Turina’s Premier Trio, the interaction of all three women is quite stunning. But whatever moods are established by the Turina piece, they’re broken again by Nickrenz’s juggernaut piano as it violently explodes the opening moments of Raimundo Penaforte’s An Eroica Trio and continues to lay waste to the surrounding countryside. This kind of performing is not only difficult to listen to, it’s completely at odds with the style. I must admit that this is not a disc that got a second round in my CD player. I recommend that it not even get a first one in yours.
