Magazine article Gramophone
Beethoven: Piano Trios-No 6, Op 70
Article excerpt
Beethoven
Piano Trios--No 6, Op 70 No 2;
No 7, 'Archduke', Op 97
Isabelle Faust vn Jean-Guihen Queyras vc
Alexander Melnikov fp
Harmonia Mundi [F] HMC90 2125 (68' * DDD)
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Nannette Streicher's new piano was a six-octave godsend for Beethoven. And the next year, 1808, he ran the full gamut from the F three octaves below middle C to the one three octaves above it--in Op 70 No 2. The lowest note first appears at 1'10", three bars before the end of the introductory Poco sostenuto, but Alexander Melnikov doesn't make much of it. Left-hand reticence? Or is he a touch backwardly placed? Either way, his bassline doesn't always speak clearly, but comes into its own in the C minor variations of the second movement and an authoritative finale. Otherwise his leadership varies. Often he leaves Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras to compensate in conceptually a large-scale interpretation. …