There have been surprisingly few recordings on period instruments of Mozart's chamber music, and especially of the chamber music with piano, where the differences between modern and period instruments are particularly crucial in terms of balance and blend. This new version uses a fortepiano modelled on an Anton Walter of the mid-1780s, the make Mozart himself used (and it is nearly always preferable to use a modern replica: Mozart himself wrote for an instrument in new condition, as opposed to one that had spent 200 years maturing and mellowing). The players here are leading American exponents of classical instruments; but they are not dogmatic in approach and the performances they offer are full-size ones, not delicate Dresden-china miniatures concerned above all with niceties. Indeed there are moments when an almost romantic passion breaks through, for example in the first movement of the E major Trio when Myron Lutzke has one of his rare moments of cello solo. There is certainly no lack of full-blooded and vigorous playing.
In the first of the trios, the 1776 Divertimento, there is often a hint of impetuousness in Steven Lubin's piano playing, a tendency to press the music forward slightly. But this quite rarely heard piece does reward expressive playing, especially in its Adagio where Mozart's textures are so original and so expressive—as too is his melodic writing, much of it for the violin, played here most sweetly and yet with strength by Stanley Ritchie, perhaps the most naturally attuned of these three to the expressive world of classical-period instruments. K496 is rather less successful: it is not one of Mozart's finest works of the period and I thought some of the playing, especially Lubin's in the finale, rather mechanical. But the ensuing trios are masterpieces and make heavy demands, and I felt Lubin did not always rise to them. There are one or two touches of mannerism in his playing which seem to become accentuated when he is expressively extended, as here: a tendency to press forward, again, sometimes by not giving a note or a group of notes quite its full value—I am talking, of course, of only minute divergences, but enough to add a touch of instability that can be quite damaging. Yet at the same time there is occasionally a hint of the mechanical, for example where in the first movement recapitulation the secondary material is blandly presented. And there is a disturbing inclination to 'spread' chords slightly. The beautiful Larghetto here begins well, however, with a lovely line drawn by Ritchie in particular, though later the playing seems to coarsen somewhat.
I was still less happy with the opening movement of the extraordinary K542 Trio. This is altogether too fulsomely played. It is expressive music, to be sure, but it demands cool, chaste playing, from the pianist in particular, if its refinement and gentleness of utterance is to come across. Lubin overloads the music (listen for example to his handling of the cadence at the end of the first group) and plays it with a legato touch (he sometimes sustains notes into rests) which almost makes one wonder if he is not sighing for a modern Steinway. In the Andante he exaggerates the articulation to produce some curious accents. He parallels it in his notes with Sachertorte, and that I fear is how he plays it. I enjoyed K548 much more; it is a large scale work, a bit grandiose in Mozart's big C major manner, spacious and brilliant, and one senses these players being more challenged by it. There are in fact one or two moments that are a shade ugly, in the first movement, but they do show a real grasp of the piece and it makes a good effect. K564 is possibly a more ordinary work, but it too comes out well in spite of one or two clumsy moments in the finale. The players allow themselves occasional ornamentation in the repeats (which they observe meticulously throughout) which I don't think is always effective and slightly doubt its aptitude or at least its wisdom. As a whole, then, this set is not without certain problems, but it does give a capable and on the whole forthright performance of these works on the kinds of instrument for which they were intended, and the recording captures that sound truthfully.'