The opening bars of Bridge's Trio, where violin and cello unite in passionate lament while the piano offers chilling, remote ostinato arabesques high in the treble, mark it out at once as the strikingly original work of a composer who in his tonal explorations was at odds with the British musical establishment of the 1920s. There is little comfort in the desolate, other-wordly yet passionate atmosphere of this first movement; and the quicksilver scherzo which follows, with its agitated pizzicato strings and scurrying little piano phrases, offers no relief. In the slow third movement a more elegiac mood emerges, but it is the world of early Berg and Webern which is evoked rather than that of an English composer. Though the finale sets out energetically the opening material of the work returns briefly and in the end there seems no real resolution. Yet this is not a gloomy, depressing work; Bridge's writing is resolute, stoical and curiously uplifting.
Bax's Trio makes a good contrast. Although written in 1946 it could almost date from the early years of the century, with its open-hearted, easy-going romanticism and its attractive, galloping rhythms. The slow movement does have a few longueurs, Particularly where violin and cello, seemingly chained together an octave apart, wander inconsequentially, but otherwise Bax writes beautifully in his most extrovert mood.
The Russian-born artists enter the worlds of both Bax and Bridge with astonishing confidence and sureness. Luba Edlina in particular seems to be perfectly inside the music: her subtlety of phrase and her skilful use of rhythm are quite admirable. On LP the recording is warm, clear and natural, with excellent piano tone achieved through the instrument being placed at a decent distance from the microphones. I wondered if the CD could improve on such excellence, and when it arrived I could detect little difference in quality between the two mediums.'