The post-millennial Taneyev revival continued with the 2008 Northern Flowers release of his complete trios. For devoted fans of the Russian Silver Age composer, these four works may come as something of a surprise. Where many if not most of Taneyev's works are dark and heavy with an emphasis on form and counterpoint, the trios are predominantly light and lyrical with an emphasis on melody and harmony. Nor do their melodies and harmonies sound especially like Taneyev. This is to a certain extent understandable in the case of the early Trio in D major for violin, viola, and cello, which has the polish, the refinement, and even the tone of early Mendelssohn and in the case of the mature Trio in D major for two violins and viola, which has an airy delicacy wholly unlike the same composer's more characteristic minor-key chamber music. But why the later Trio in D major -- apparently Taneyev's favorite key for trios -- for piano, violin, and cello and the Trio for violin, viola, and cello in E flat major sound so bright and beautiful and thus so utterly dissimilar to the composer's contemporary Piano Quintet in G minor is unknowable. Still, whether typical or atypical of the composer, the
Taneyev Quartet's performances here are consistently convincing. With their warm tone, lush ensemble, clean articulation, and buoyant feeling for rhythm, the players turn in delightful readings sure to charm fans of fin de siècle chamber music. Recorded in the USSR in 1969 and 1978, the sound here is amazingly clean and clear for its place and time.