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. …