For me, this is THE recording of the Ravel trio. It is played with a refinement and palette of tonal color that one rarely encounters in any music, and is a pure pleasure to hear. The instrumentalist's understanding of each other results in a performance that is profoundly controlled, in spite of an overarching sense of improvisational abandon, and beautifully phrased throughout. It is an effort between musical peers with deep sympathy for each other, for the score, and for the arts of instrumental color. After all these years, nothing has replaced it in my affections.
Link to all files
Wow, way to go - this album was actually in my queue to upload! It can be found on CD on a big Menuhin boxed set, but for those who don't have $1000 for a used collectible copy, your efforts are appreciated!
ReplyDeleteNow if I could just find any recordings of Cassado playing his own compositions...
Thanks Squirrel
ReplyDeleteI don't typically put up stuff you can get easily on CD, or try not to, but as this is only available on that 50 CD set of Menuhin's EMI recordings, I decided to post it. It's an important performance, I think, and gorgeous, and really should be available for the price of a single disc.
Do you know the Pasquier trio version (duet actually) with Lucette Descaves at the piano? Could be a contender, too, for the first place!
ReplyDeleteit has been republished by Erato, along with the two wonderful Roussel trios. As soon as it becomes unavailable, I will publish my lp transfer!
In the mean time let's listen to Menuhin's!
Thanks!
Daniel, I hope you like the Menuhin trio doing this. I'll see if I can hunt up the Pasquier duo with Lucette Descaves. I'm very fond of the piece, which is not recorded all that much, and would gladly hear another take on it.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing performance1
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
geofflebowski: Thanks for your comments. As I said above, I've always loved this performance -- and this work.
ReplyDeleteWhat an absolutely BRILLIANT reading of the Ravel. Got here looking for something else and found this. Kentner, the old forgotten marvellous pianist, with his brother-in-law back then, Menuhin, WHAT A PERFORMANCE! I once turned pages of this Ravel for 2 members of the Amadeus: Brainin and Lovett with Arnaldo Cohen on a visit they paid to Buenos Aires the year after Peter Schidloff died so suddenly. It's very difficult to be page turner for this work. Somehow managed with a few nudges from Arnaldo Cohen to help me along. A great experience. So I know the work. And this is SUPERB! Thanks so so much.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteBtw, according to Molkhou (which contains quite a few typos), this recording has been made on 12/7/1960.
Danse de Puck: Thanks for your comments. I agree about the brilliance of the reading. This is the performance I keep coming back to. Thanks for the recording information, too.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing performance. My dad is in 7th, make that 10th, heaven with this recording. Claims it's better than Heifetz's, which is about as far as he goes with exalted praise. Is this recording still available? Thank you for your astute commentary, again my dad thought it dead on.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the recording of Mozart's Divertimento String Trio (KV 563) with Heifetz, Feuermann, & Rubinstein recorded in 1940 or 41? My father has it and extols its majesty. Thank you ... love you blog Lawrence.
ReplyDeleteMy sincere apology at my ignorance, there's no piano in Mozart's KV 563, Trio Divertimento in E Flat. My previous indicated Rubinstein but what I meant, really, was to say the players were William Primrose, viola; Jascha Heifetz, violin; and Emmanuel Feuermann, cello.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Rudy Nyhoff, son of classical audiophile Rudolph Nyhoff, M.D., retired