Leibniz Trio - Works for Piano Trio by Dvorak, Finlay and Martin (2011)

Folk music and other musical idioms have long influenced and inspired composers of art music. Intimate chamber ensembles are ideally suited to show off the potential of such musical synthesis, particularly when the performing group highlights these influences. Winners of the 2010 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, the Leibniz Piano Trio is just such an ensemble. It begins this premiere recording with a Trio on Popular Irish Folk Tunes by Frank Martin. Rarely is the Irish folk idiom infused in this manner, but the result is both intriguing and energizing. Martin's vivacious use of rhythm is reminiscent of Ginastera; his incorporation of Irish melodies informs but does not dictate the entire structure of his most enjoyable work. On the other end of the program is Joseph Finlay's Piano Trio, replete with jazz and improvisatory notions. The technical demands of Finlay's trio are extreme, but Leibniz handles them with extraordinary easy and precision well beyond their young years. In both the Martin and Finlay, their sound is powerful yet exceptionally clean and well-articulated. The center of the program is the Dvorák F minor Trio, the first work that the ensemble rehearsed together. Though the playing here is equally refined technically, the sound -- particularly in the first movement -- comes across excessively weighty and muddy, losing some of the crisp articulation and diminishing the impact of Dvorák's folk ideas. Still, Leibniz is an exceptionally gifted trio, and its first disc together is still worthwhile just for Martin and Finlay.