Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo M – Brahms: The Piano Trios (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his longtime collaborator, pianist Emanuel Ax, are joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos in their first recording together of all three of the piano trios of Johannes Brahms. Ma and Ax have built together a distinguished catalogue of Brahms recordings, but this is their first recording of the Piano Trios and their first collaboration with Kavakos.

Of the three Brahms Piano Trios – Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8; Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87; and Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 101 the Second and Third Trios were written and first performed in quick succession (1882 and 1883), both examples of Brahms at his creative zenith. The same can be said of the First Trio: originally completed when he was twenty, in 1854, and premiered the following year, Brahms thoroughly rethought and revised it in a new version premiered early in 1890. That more elegant and concentrated version of a youthful work has become the standard for the First Trio, and it is the version performed on the recording by Ma, Ax and Kavakos.

All three performers have been acclaimed for their interpretations of Brahms, as soloists and as colleagues. Between them, Ma and Ax have shared four Grammy Awards for their recordings of Brahms’s chamber music. With Kavakos, they first performed all three Brahms Piano Trios together on one program at the Tanglewood Festival in 2015. They will repeat the program in US concerts during the 2017-18 season.

You may rightly be suspicious of all-star chamber groups: for each one that clicks, four seem put together for purely commercial purposes. But the piano trio on this Sony release, beautifully recorded at what is arguably the premiere American venue acoustically, Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, does not even really fall under that classification, even though all three members are certainly stars. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax are collaborators of long standing, and the interplay between the two here is consistently profound, with Ma’s warmth setting off Ax’s agile skittering. Too, the trios are made for Yo-Yo Ma, with the contrapuntal intricacy of the music giving the cello lots to do, and in particular giving him a chance to display his wondrous melodic gift. Sample the cello material of the Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8. The early work is played here in its 1890 revision, which Brahms altered in many essential ways while leaving the opening intact, and you may wish to own this double album for this moment alone. The opening movement of the Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87, is a masterpiece of crisp, confident playing all around, and really the music here ranges from consistent to exceptional, and never leaves any of the performers in his own world. Highly recommended.

Tracklist:

1-01. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87: Allegro (09:50)
1-02. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87: Andante con moto (08:03)
1-03. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87: Scherzo: Presto (04:48)
1-04. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87: Finale: Allegro giocoso (06:11)
2-01. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 101: Allegro energico (07:28)
2-02. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 101: Presto non assai (03:51)
2-03. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 101: Andante grazioso (04:05)
2-04. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 101: Allegro molto (05:38)
2-05. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8: Allegro con brio (14:34)
2-06. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8: Scherzo: Allegro molto (06:31)
2-07. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8: Adagio (08:30)
2-08. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos & Yo-Yo M – Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8: Finale: Allegro (06:45)