It was a delightful idea to bring together three winning works for the rare combination of clarinet, viola and piano, particularly when you have artists of the calibre of these. Sabine Meyer—the clarinettist at the heart of the first Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic row—has already shown on record what an individual artist she is, a natural soloist, but Hartmut Holl, an inspired Lieder accompanist, here reveals himself as something much more. In the Kegelstatt Trio he emerges as a Mozartian of the first order, magicking the figuration of this relaxed work with a wit and point that kept reminding me of Murray Perahia, totally spontaneous, not at all mannered. It is the musical equivalent of being tickled, and that is apt in a work which may not have been written in the bowling alley—Kegelstatt—of the nickname, but which certainly reflects the composer's joy in private music-making with his friends, Anton Stadler and Franziska von Jacquin.
A performance like this re-creates just such a private, intimate atmosphere, and that is the impression too in the other pieces by Schumann and Bruch. It is a pity that only four of the eight Bruch pieces are included, particularly when there would have been plenty of room for the others, but the ones here are amiably done with no sentimentality, whether in the flowing Mendelssohnian lyricism of No. 2 or the melancholy of No. 5. The warmth of Tabea Zimmermann's viola tone is a great help.
In the Schumann pieces—''narrative tales'' as he calls them one then enters a new world, more fantastic, more adventurous, and that again sparks off this inspired team to playing of power and keen individuality, with Holl very much the leader. I confess I didn't know these rare pieces but the note writer claims that they mark a culmination to the preceding groups of Schumann duos, the Fantasiestucke, Op. 73 for clarinet, the Romanzen, Op. 94 for oboe and the Marchenbilder, Op. 113 for viola. Written in 1853, the Marchenerzahlungen brings no falling-off of invention, and it is good to have so accomplished a recording, even if—taking a hint from the note writer's idea of the four groups of pieces as a cycle a recording with all those Schumann groups would also be welcome.'