Lalo's three piano trios have done well on disc recently. Earlier this year, LS reviewed performances by the Trio Parnassus, finding their pianist Chia Chou too strong for comfort but admiring the music. I also praised these works in my review of a disc from the Henry Trio, which, I wrote, ''earns a clear recommendation''; this is direct, sincere and flexible playing from a youngish ensemble. Lalo was a pianist as well as a professional string player and everything here is idiomatic, in a style related to that of his exact contemporary, Franck, although the spirit of Mendelssohn is also present; indeed, these works are much better than Franck's early, and surprisingly inadequate, piano trios.
The Barbican Trio are another young ensemble, British as their name suggests, and they guide us fluently through these pieces. I like their elegant phrasing and balanced textures, and they sound totally confident. They take the first movement of the C minor Trio too fast—and I felt that before looking to remind myself that the marking is Allegro moderato. But elsewhere tempos are well judged. Where they disappoint is in a certain expressive understatedness: we need more charm in the Romance in the First Trio, more wit in the Minuet of the Second, and more consistently surging impulse in the Allegro appassionato of the Third. On the other hand, the Tres lent in the latter work has depth and the finale moves well. The recording, made in St George's, Brandon Hill in Bristol is clear but this music really needs more immediacy and glow. While this is a worthy disc, therefore, first choice for this repertory remains the Henry Trio.'