Whatever happened to
Felix Mendelssohn? He had it all: refined taste, a sensitive soul, a fantastic imagination, and technique to burn. But although he had a string of hits as big as any from 1830s and 1840s, he died young and there was always a sense of unfulfilled promise hanging over him. Then
Wagner happened and eclipsed
Mendelssohn. And then the Nazis happened and banned
Mendelssohn. And
Mendelssohn, except for his string of hits, has yet to find his way back into the standard repertoire.
Among
Mendelssohn's finest chamber music are his two piano trios, one in D minor and the other C minor. Both are big four-movement works with passionate themes, brilliant developments, soulful slow movements, and brilliant Scherzos and both receive superb performances from the
Vienna Piano Trio. In their hands,
Mendelssohn's Piano Trios sound like great music, music full of passion but completely controlled, supremely refined but wonderfully expressive, incredibly imaginative but technically virtuosic. Nimbus' very idiosyncratic recording practices have once again produced a rich, warm, and immediate aural incarnation of the sound of a real piano trio in a real hall in real time.