It has taken more than five years for this enterprising anthology to reach the shops. Fortunately, the wait has been worth it: these are utterly sympathetic, beautifully prepared performances from this fine family group, whose line-up comprises the distinguished pianist Bernard Roberts and his two sons, Andrew and Nicholas (on violin and cello respectively).
The centrepiece is the Second Piano Trio, a truly magnificent creation that Anthony Payne has justly hailed as ‘one of the masterpieces of 20th-century English, indeed European chamber music’. Cast in two interlinked movements, it is a work of searing intensity and astounding individuality, whose November 1929 premiere provoked a shockingly ignorant and hurtful response from some quarters of the British musical establishment. Compared with the Dartington Trio on a rival Hyperion issue, these dedicated newcomers take a more restrained, less lingering view of this troubled music. Some will crave an altogether more palpable sense of numbing loss in the unnerving Andante molto moderato slow movement than the Bernard Roberts Trio chooses to convey; and the work’s towering final climax perhaps lacks that last ounce of cumulative power and epic breadth. No matter, this is a shapely, thoroughly convincing conception all the same, though I must say I’ve yet to hear an interpretation – on or off record – that comes close to matching the comprehensive emotional and intellectual response offered by the Tunnell Trio on a treasured and long-deleted Argo LP (a simply magisterial display, no doubt doomed to languish for an eternity in the vaults).
Winner of the 1907 Cobbett Composition Prize, the Phantasy Trio in C minor inhabits an entirely different world, its elegant arch-shaped form, superior craftsmanship and generous lyrical flow being typical of Bridge’s early output. The present group gives a splendidly taut, agreeably unmannered account of this lovely piece, and lavishes similarly deft and affectionate treatment upon four of the nine Miniatures for piano trio published in three sets between 1909 and 1915 (the opening ‘Romance’ is a particularly touching morsel). The sound is admirably vivid, though the piano timbre is perhaps just a touch clangorous. All in all, a most desirable acquisition.'