With a title like Our Favorites, listeners may have some expectation that an ensemble would choose works it could execute with brilliant technical precision, sweeping musicality, and seeming ease. Regrettably, this album by the
Eaken Piano Trio fails to live up to any such expectation. For starters, the sound quality of the album is quite poor. All of the instruments sound quite distant and muffled, and the piano seems almost to be in a different room. When all three musicians are playing simultaneously, there's almost no definition to the sound. From a technical aspect, the performance is simply a mess. Intonation is painfully poor throughout and at times, the piano itself seems not to have been tuned properly. Articulation and tone color in the strings do not match; passages of harmonics and extremely high notes are woefully inaccurate. There are missed notes in the piano part, and the pedal is used far too extensively in a failed attempt to cover up these shortcomings. The trio finds no salvation in its musical interpretation, which is safe, predictable, and often downright cheesy. While this album may be "their favorites," it's rather unlikely to be among your favorites.