Though this Teldec Ultima reissue looks dowdy (they all do) the Trio Fontenay’s Schubert set makes an ideal choice, whether you’re new to the works for piano trio or simply want alternative versions at negligible additional cost. These beautifully played and eloquently detailed accounts were made at Teldec’s Berlin studios in 1994 and 1995 and you’d be hard put to guess that they didn’t originate from a more lively, sonorous concert hall environment. Trio Fontenay is a young group, at least by the standards of the illustrious Beaux Arts Trio, whose Schubert recordings down the past four decades have proved the most consistent and critically admired since the vintage Thibaud/Casals/Cortot recording of the B-flat appeared in 1926. However, in spite of its relative youth and its formidable competition in these works, on evidence of these performances the Fontenay clearly shows a strong affinity for Schubert. The B-flat’s opening movement begins very powerfully, and pianist Wolf Harden gives terrific weight to the dotted-note figures of the piano part wherever they support the march-like first theme in the strings. The Andante features a wonderfully alert dialogue between violin and cello, the scherzos are full of rhythmic bounce, and in the E-flat trio the three players sustain a marvelously mesmeric atmosphere throughout the haunting slow movement. This set also includes first-rate readings of the D. 897 Notturno and the early trio movement (Sonata) Schubert wrote at age 15 (D. 28). On balance, these accounts are highly recommendable even though they don’t quite hit the heights attained by the Beaux Arts Trio on Philips.
