This disc celebrates fifty years of
the Beaux Arts Trio, whose very first
LP, made in 1954, included the Mendelssohn
D minor Trio recorded here. Of course
the trio’s membership has changed over
the years, though the pianist (Menahem
Pressler, 82 this year) is one of the
originals. The original violinist, Daniel
Guilet, retired in 1969, to be replaced
by Isidore Cohen and (more recently,
in turn) Ani Kavafian and Dong-Suk Kang.
The original cellist, Bernard Greenhouse,
was succeeded by Peter Wiley. And we
now have the British violinist Daniel
Hope and the Brazilian cellist Antonio
Meneses to complete the line-up.
The Mendelssohn Trio
is the kind of piece that divides the
composer’s admirers from his detractors.
And there are probably more of the latter
in 2004 than there were in 1954: such
is the nature of fashion and taste!
Few would dispute that it’s full of
dynamic energy and memorable melodic
ideas. Typically, it’s beautifully and
expertly written and, as so often with
Mendelssohn’s best music, it shows a
strong grasp of structure. But those
who object to Mendelssohn’s four-square
phrases and his ‘facility’ - his tendency
to triviality - do (potentially…) have
a heyday here.
Several of Dvořák’s
large-scale pieces incorporated a dumka
- a Ukrainian (not Czech) dance: among
them, the Fifth Symphony, the Violin
Concerto, the E flat Quartet, and the
A major Piano Quintet and Sextet. The
E minor Piano Trio is different in that
all six movements feature components
of the dumka -
or Dvořák’s customised version
of it! Each movement comprises a slow
dance leading into a fast one: so the
piece is brim full of some of composer’s
most melancholy music, as well as some
of his most exciting.
There’s much beautiful
playing here: it’s polished and musical,
with (distinguished soloists
though Hope and Meneses are) a clear
unity of purpose. However, tempi are
generally sedate: worryingly so in some
places, as in the Mendelssohn’s finale,
which (some would say) emphasises the
music’s drawing room manners and saccharine
taste. There are places in the Dvořák
too - most obviously the four movement’s
alla marcia - where, simply
because they hold back so much, the
music’s essential character is only
half-heartedly conveyed. I suggest the
Beaux Arts have prioritised on beauty
of sound, without realising that they’re
sacrificing something in the process.
Don’t let me give the
wrong impression: there’s much to commend
this disc. With over-enthusiastic allegros,
the Mendelssohn commonly suffers from
a loss of rhythmic clarity: but not
so here! And I’ve never heard the lovely
poco adagio second movement of
the Dvořák
- with its delicious pedal points! -
sound lovelier: Pressler’s featherweight
arpeggios, Hope’s velvet muted sonorities,
and Meneses’ subtle underpinning of
Dvořák’s delicate harmonies are
enough to send one into a trance!
The recording is exemplary.
Peter J Lawson
Beaux Arts Trio: Daniel Hope (violin), Antonio
Meneses (cello); Menahem Pressler (piano) 
