BURNISHED COLOURS

'Czech instrumentalists of starry reputation'

Smetana's chamber music on the Supraphon label -
with DAVID WILKINS

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The second volume (again short measure at less than fifty minutes) contains a highly recommendable performance of the largely elegiac Piano Trio that Smetana wrote in response to the death of his second daughter in early childhood. The opening is rightly impassioned but remains faithful to the marking of Moderato assai. We are clearly in the company of a composer of Romantic sensibility giving expression to a profoundly personal experience. The balance between keyboard and strings is good with the pianist (who has a lot of Lisztian things to do) never swamping the violin and cello. There is plenty of affecting give-and-take in the tempo and variety between the passionate and more innocent material [listen - track 1, 8.24 - 9.10]. The movement ends in an abyss of despair.

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