This album combining the Arensky Piano Trio No. 1 and the
Korngold Piano Trio is a great debut for the
Escher Trio. The three musicians -- Sonja van Beek, violin; Johan van Iersel, cello; and Jeroen Bal, piano -- make an excellent team, sympathetic to the others' parts and in accord with their interpretations and sound. Beyond that, they also make the trios come to life with passion and energy without overdoing it. They draw the listener into the music with their lyrical and sensitive phrasing, which also makes the two trios hold together as a program. The
Escher Trio plays the Arensky with a graceful lightness that hints of Vienna, a perfect match for
Korngold's trio, which is obviously Viennese. Bal has delicate, rippling runs in the opening of the Arensky, and his feathery sound is matched by van Beek and Iersel in the Scherzo with dancing airiness. The third movement, beginning with a lovely solo by Iersel, is a sorrowful song, not the heavy dirge that it sometimes can be. The finale is the most intense of the four movements, and the Trio is vigorous to the end, stopping momentarily to recall the fluidity of the third movement. The
Korngold is a step above the Arensky in energy and expression, but, nevertheless, has some elegance and the dance-like melodies expected in Viennese music. Through all four movements, there is youthful ardor in the way passages of lyricism alternate with those based more on harmonic progressions, both of the Impressionist and Straussian varieties. Again, the
Escher gives a well-balanced and moving reading.
Korngold's Scherzo is darker and heavier than Arensky's, but there is still playfulness in it. Van Beek gets the touching solo in
Korngold's third movement, which ends with quiet beauty. The
Escher even manages to pull together the fragmentary finale, finding sense in the strung-together thematic ideas and giving it cohesion through the emotional content. The
Escher Trio is off to a wonderful start with this disc. The recording balances the sound of the instruments very well, but there is room for even more tone color to come out of the strings.