Hyperion follow up their record of the early 1819 E flat Quartet for piano and wind, the 1828 Septet and the F minor Piano Trio of 1851 (8/96) with three works from the 1850s. Although Berwald’s chamber music has only a peripheral hold on the repertory outside Sweden, it is worth getting to know. As his orchestral works went unplayed in the 1840s, it was natural that he should have turned to chamber music in the 1850s. Not that his chamber music made much more headway than the symphonies. The Singuliere had to wait 60 years for its premiere and the C minor Piano Quintet of 1853 was not given in public until 1895. (Like the Piano Concerto, it was inspired by his talented young protegee, Hilda Thegerstrom who played it in private performances in the 1850s.) Berwald keeps the piano busy pretty well all the time and Susan Tomes copes with the demands of the part with great flair and delicacy of feeling. I can’t imagine her playing will be surpassed in its sense of style and finesse. Much the same must be said of the Gaudier Ensemble who are little short of superb.
The Piano Trio No. 4 comes from the same year and had to wait until 1896 before a Copenhagen publisher brought it out. It is a refreshing and delightful piece, to which Marieke Blankestijn, Christoph Marks and Susan Tomes bring an abundant artistry. I have always thought the Duo in D major, which is not otherwise available on disc in this country, a relatively uninteresting if not downright feeble piece but the partnership of Marieke Blankestijn and Susan Tomes almost (but not quite) persuade me to the contrary. True, the piece is for piano and violin rather than the other way round but I wish the balance had given us a little more of the violin which in this light has a certain pallor. At times in both the Trio and Quintet, Marieke Blankestijn favours too great a reticence which the microphone balance enhances. The recording is otherwise very natural in timbre, and those who bought the earlier issue in this series need not hesitate.'