Vienna Brahms Trio - Schumann: Piano Trios, Vol. 1 (1999)

Schumann's piano trios are large-scale works, the D minor trio in particular. Its lengthy first movement, which the composer marks "With Energy and Passion", really needs to be played that way, consisting as it does of those long, episodic, non-developing sequences that Schumann for some reason called "sonata form". Don't get me wrong: the music works just fine, but only if it's played with enough sweep and spontaneity that its emotional urgency obliterates its somewhat clunky form. The same holds true for the finale, marked "With Fire". The Vienna Brahms Trio does a good job of conveying the impulsiveness of Schumann's inspiration, and their sense of poetry in the slow movement has just the right "inner" quality. The F major trio is a much more relaxed work, and this sunny performance nicely balances the music's lyricism with the need to press on, particularly in the finale. In short, the group plays both works with a keen awareness of the need to highlight the attractiveness of Schumann's musical ideas at the expense of his somewhat dysfunctional sense of form. The result: fine performances of some sadly neglected, very lovable music. They may not quite reach the level of urgency conveyed by the Beaux Arts Trio on Philips (the VBT takes an extra minute or so in the D minor's outer movements), but they score over their more classically severe colleagues in bringing to the music a bit more warmth and grandeur, and many listeners may find their approach equally sympathetic. -- David Hurwitz