Assuming you’re not deterred by the price tag, the best all-round survey of mature Mozart piano trios on CD comes from the Mozartean Players in their superb two-disc Harmonia Mundi set. The performances, on original instruments (a fact that shouldn’t worry anyone concerned about the effect of leaner textures), are exceptionally refined, with fortepianist Steven Lubin displaying impeccable musicianship and expertise throughout. Only marginally subordinate is the Philips set of the complete trios from the Beaux Arts Trio; there’s much wonderful playing here too, with Menahem Pressler’s engaging fingerwork always a delight (it’s the pianist who enjoys the lion’s share in these pieces), even if the strings sound over-upholstered much of the time.
The point is, you’d do better with either of these sets than with this somewhat jaded and disappointing cycle by the Trio Fontenay, which doesn’t shine as impressively here as on most of its other Teldec recordings. The playing is efficient enough, though pianist Wolf Harden doesn’t have Pressler’s sense of pure-phrased fantasy in the delectable slow movements (the lovely variations of K. 564’s andante are a case in point) nor Lubin’s fabulous clarity of articulation. The Fontenays give declamatory and forthright accounts of the outer movements, taking energetic tempos and giving the music plenty of drive where it’s needed–but where’s the repose and the dynamic contrast? Compare the Beaux Arts in the lyrical second subject group of K. 542’s opening movement and you’ll not find much of a gear-change occurring with the Fontenays; and the same applies across the board in their accurate but pretty routine interpretations. In sum, this amounts to a rather disappointing recital, despite good sound engineering.
