One of the longest-standing piano trios in existence, and one of the very few that still maintains its original members, the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has been hard at work for the last several years with Koch International Classics (now E1 Music) laying down a complete cycle of both the Beethoven and Brahms piano trios. The present installment is Vol. 2 of the complete Brahms trios. The two-disc Vol. 1 has the trios in B and C major, the clarinet trio, and the horn trio. What, then, could fill two full discs in Vol. 2 apart from the obvious Trio in C minor? To answer this, the
KLR Trio turns to Theodor Kirchner -- a contemporary and compatriot of Brahms -- and his transcriptions of the two youthful string sextets for piano trio.
The
KLR Trio's playing of the C minor Trio is on par with performances in Vol. 1: keen insights into the score, confident, powerful playing, brilliant pacing, and sensitive use of dynamics. Intonation is generally solid though not perfect. The same high level of playing is found in the two Kirchner transcriptions. The problem here, though, is the transcriptions themselves. It's immediately noticeable that these were not originally written by Brahms for this instrumentation. The textures, warmth, and sustained sonorities achieved by six string instruments simply cannot be reproduced. Instead, these two works sound much more like an exercise in transcription than a true representation of Brahms' intentions or the
KLR Trio's abilities.