These are breathtakingly beautiful performances of breathtakingly beautiful music. Trio No. 1 is one of Saint-Saëns’ earliest chamber works, but it shows his trademark style fully in place: elegant, tuneful, and supremely confident in its craftsmanship. The most noteworthy thing about the work, aside from the lovely thematic material, is the characterful use of syncopated rhythms in all four movements. How marvelously the members of Trio Wanderer realize this aspect! Compared to them, the otherwise decent Joachim Trio on Naxos sounds as if it’s standing in place. Listen to the vitality the Wanderer brings to the opening movement, or to the heartfelt simplicity of the andante’s folk-song main theme, or to the confidence and joie de vivre in the scherzo’s delicious rhythmic games. It’s simply irresistible.
The Second Trio is less rambunctious in style but more interesting in form, with five movements (two dance pieces bracket a central Andante con moto) and a dazzling contrapuntal finale. Once again it’s difficult to imagine the performance being better. Pianist Vincent Coq is particularly impressive, displaying a truly memorable ability to handle Saint-Saëns’ fistfuls of notes with just the right touch: light, fluid, and perfectly even. His scales (and Saint-Saëns always writes lots of them) are a joyous experience all by themselves, which is not to take anything away from his similarly immaculate string-playing colleagues. Ideally balanced sonics and a warm acoustic complete a disc that comes as close to perfection as we have any right to expect. Gorgeous! [7/25/2005]
