Though it has never been the ugly duckling that Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto used to be, Beethoven's Triple Concerto has always been neglected compared to the solo ones, and the expense of programming it with major soloists must also have militated against performance. Although Karajan made a fine version with Oistrakh, Rostropovich and Richter for EMI (4/88), I take the view that success is generally more likely when the soloists are an existing ensemble, used to listening to each other and to interpreting with unanimity of purpose. That is the case here, as also with the Trio Zingara on Pickwick.
The big first movement is given plenty of space by the Trio Fontenay and Eliahu Inbal, and yet it moves along with enough momentum to avoid stodginess. But though I like the playing well enough, I am less happy with the recording, which is short of tonal bloom, as in the powerful A minor passage at 6'28'' into the work, where the sound is especially unkind to Wolf Harden's piano (similarly at 14'28''); likewise at 8'06'', Niklas Schmidt's cello solo lacks richness. The Largo is only a third as long as the first movement and less than half the length of the final Polacca into which it leads, so it needs extra weight to make its proper impact, and this it receives here in a sensitive performance, while the finale itself also comes off well in a treatment which is more lyrical than some but still has ample robust good spirits. In deciding whether this disc interests you, it is worth considering the fill-up, which is in fact one of the finest among Beethoven's trios: but while it receives a fluent performance, there is not enough atmosphere in the Largo to justify its nickname of the Ghost Trio, while again the recording lacks fullness.
The mid-price CD with the Trio Zingara and Edward Heath conducting the ECO is much more attractive, for the Concerto has warmth, spontaneity and better playing; the recording is fine if a bit reverberant, and the Trio's excellent cellist Felix Schmidt plays a Boccherini concerto as the coupling. Karajan (DG) had soloists for the Concerto who were then 11 years younger than now, and while it goes well enough, his strong handling of the orchestra slightly dwarfs them musically and sonically (as in Ma's entry at 2'33'' from the start) while the three overture recordings that make up the disc are over 20 years old.'