Guarneri Trio Prague - Rejcha: Piano Trios (1996)

Antoine Reicha was one of those composers who straddled the Classical and Romantic eras and his music often reflects that. His wind quintets are what are most frequently heard. He wrote many of them, and they appeal to performers and listeners because of his expertise in part-writing and the good-natured animation of the music. The same well-balanced writing that spreads the leading lines among all the instruments and the geniality are in these three piano trios, the first half of six published as Op. 101. The texture and density of this music lean toward the more elegant, lightness of Mozart, but the Guarneri Trio performs it with a more Romantic-tinged interpretation. The strings, Cenek Pavlík and Marek Jerie, use more vibrato than feels appropriate and the articulation is less precise than the piano. This is particularly noticeable at the ends of phrases where the string notes seem to linger longer than the piano's. Ivan Klánský adeptly handles the fancy finger-work that Reicha tosses in every once and a while that is reminiscent of passagework in late Mozart or early Beethoven piano concertos. There are also moments of textural interest, such as in the opening of the Trio No. 1 in E flat where the pianist's left hand takes the melody or when the two hands play in polyrhythm. Reicha does, however, tend to be rather predictable in his thematic and harmonic development. The music and the Guarneri Trio are at their best in the finales, where everything comes together with infectious energy.