With characteristic enterprise, the Nash Ensemble have disinterred two Russian chamber works that can be known to very few Western collectors and are well worth recording. Arensky's Trio, written in memory of the eminent cellist Karl Davydov, is laid out in Classical proportions with a sonata first movement, a nimble Scherzo, an Elegy and vigorous finale. The manner is somewhere between Brahms and Arensky's much-admired friend and mentor Tchaikovsky, but the influences are well-absorbed and the music has a distinct personality and quiet lyricism that are all its own. If only Arensky had possessed that extra degree of originality, this would be a masterly work: he is inventive with his textures in what everyone (not least the wary Tchaikovsky himself) knew to be a tricky medium, he is sensitive to form and he handles his material well; but distinctiveness is not the same as distinction and though the work makes highly agreeable listening, it cannot match Tchaikovsky's somewhat more irregular (and sometimes less skilfully scored) Trio in its capacity to seize and hold the imagination. Nevertheless, it is a good work, and a useful addition to our skimpy knowledge of Russian chamber music.
Rimsky-Korsakov's piece is less of a Westernizer's work, and makes its effects by the typically clever use of textures that can suggest neat and pleasing inventions. The finale somewhat overstays its welcome with its lengthy Teddy Bear's picnicing (and Rimsky-Korsakov in the end seems to tire of it, too, making his conclusion by simply knocking it aside); but the other two movements are ingeniously and sometimes amusingly written. Both works are excellently played, with some superb piano playing from Ian Brown and distinguished contributions from the wind players in the Rimsky-Korsakov and the strings in the Arensky. The recording is fresh, forward and nicely distributed.'