Alan Sanders was warm in praise of the London Fortepiano Trio's Hyperion coupling of these two works way back in 1987. And I'm bound to say that in the first in E flat, I don't think the Hobarth/Coin/Cohen team, sensitive musicians as they are, emerge as characterful—in other words they don't match the Londoners in conveying the music's true Beethovenian voltage. Throughout the work they favour more leisurely tempos, and in the three fast movements do not preserve the same tautness of rhythm or relish accentuation and dynamic contrast with the same boldness and zest. The Adagio cantabile in its turn is surely slower than is good for its melodic flow.
Honours are more equally divided in the G major Trio. Only the Scherzo seems to lack its full tingle. The Haydnesque flanking movements respond well to the newcomers' lightweight grace. As for the Largo con espressione, nothing on the disc shows them to better advantage. Here, the extra time they allow themselves (10'45'' as against the Londoners' 9'38'') enables them to reveal this movement as one of the most intimately expressive, romantically forward-looking of all Beethoven's youthful marvels. We're told that Patrick Cohen's Viennese instrument is an Anton Walter of c. 1790. I thought its upper register more mellow than Linda Nicholson's on the rival disc, though the latter—as played by that lady—seems to yield bolder contrasts of dynamics and colour. No complaints about the recording.'