Trio Parnassus - French Piano Trios (2011)

Good technique, good musicianship, and expressivity: what more could one want from an album of piano trios? Trio Parnassus delivers on this album of three works by French composers. Violinist Yamei Yu, cellist Michael Gross, and pianist Chia Chou are veterans of the form who have been playing together almost three decades, and it shows because they have such a keen sense of each others' timing and feel for the music. The opening work by Chausson is quite different from the other two works not only in form (it is four movements) but in character. From a barely audible beginning with a slightly thin-sounding violin and cello, the trio begins. Then the instruments come to their fruition; the piano is tinkling and beautiful, the cello sings (his instrument is a particularly excellent one), and the violin is in perfect synchronicity with the cello. Chausson's music is rich and often densely textured. The string players tend to bow very much into the string, with a heavy hand and sometimes this can be a bit excessive, as in the third movement, "Assez lent," though they do have a noteworthy liquid legato. The piano keeps the levity through the piece, and the three musicians create drama by observing dynamics, shifting harmonies, and crisply dotted rhythms. The phrasing is a sign of strong musicianship, as one can hear in the concluding movement, "Animé," which waltzes beautifully and reveals the trio's ability to connect to the music. The Debussy trio from Pelléas et Mélisande is arranged by Henri Mouton, but it loses none of the composer's gift for tone colors and unusual tonalities and loses none of the essence of Debussy's magic. These hallmarks of the composer are a particular delight and work well in string instruments. Once again, the beginning is almost inaudible, but it gives way to a beautiful, shimmering sound. The Fauré is another lovely work that makes use of beautiful colors. The violin is sweet and the cello sings the long, lyric lines; they make each line of music matter. Here's to another three decades of music by three talented musicians.