It’s always a pleasure
to encounter a new recording of Novák’s
Trio quasi una balleta, a work
that exudes Straussian warmth. The
Artemiss are a trio I’ve reviewed before
and, despite their relative youth, have
staked out a good place in the discography
with their Arco Diva discs. Last time
I found their Shostakovich rather reserved.
Here they couple the Novák with
a relatively recent, though charmingly
evocative, work for piano trio by Otmar
Mácha and with the first of Dvorak’s
trios, the B flat major Op.21.
Back to the Novák.
I thought it initially a touch slow
but then I checked the Novák
Thematic and Bibliographic Catalogue
and found they were actually right on
the dot when it comes to suggested timings
– 18 minutes. They bring out the rolling
Dvořák-inspired
piano chording and unison string play
with commendable resilience and buoyancy
and are alert when it comes to those
Straussian lyrical gestures toward the
end. But in comparison with the old
Czech Trio recording of 1970 the newcomers
sound rather constrained. They
are heavier and less nobly expressive
and more episodic at that slightly slower
tempo. Partly this is to do with less
persuasive phrasing and partly with
the older players’s mastery of such
things as the staccato passage in the
scherzo like section. The greater timbral
variety and weight of the Czech Trio
really counts here and they find humour
where the Artemiss don’t, or can’t.
The Artemiss is a far more equable performance
in fact than the rival Joachim Trio
performance on Naxos (driven through
in 16.23 and coupled with Smetana’s
Op.15, and Suk’s Op.2 and the Elegie
Op.23) though the Joachim go almost
to the limit to cohere a work that can
splinter in casual hands. As for a choice
since the old Czech Trio’s unsurpassed
recording is not available a recommendation
for them is purely academic. I’ve heard
neither the modern Supraphon with the
Smetana Trio (with Smetana’s Op.15 and
some Suk) or the Academia Trio’s disc,
as with the Artemiss coupled with Dvorak’s
Op.21.
Maybe the couplings
can decide things. The Artemiss Dvořák
Trio is like rather too many I’ve reviewed
recently; almost apologetic. There’s
no misterioso start and
phrasing is rather prosaic with little
attempt at shaping lines with any great
warmth. The playing is not without a
certain deft control but I can’t sense
much affection for the music or much
belief in it. The slow music is coolly
done and the rubati in the scherzo sound
too practised to convince and I’m afraid
their endemic lack of heft shows glaringly
in the finale.
Mácha’s little
Capricci are warm and athletic, audibly
derived from Janáček’s
Moravian seedbed. The folksy drive of
the last of the four in particular has
an infectious and flavoursome vocal
drive.
The acoustic in the
Domovina is a touch boomy – unusually
for this location. All this makes any
recommendation hard.
Jonathan Woolf
Artemiss Piano Trio 
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