This issue falls into a special category and comes as a fortieth-birthday tribute to Jacqueline du Pre. In a note on the sleeve, Suvi Raj Grubb relates how after recording the Chopin and Franck Sonatas in the EMI studios with Daniel Barenboim in December 1971, they had discussed the possibility of recording the Tchaikovsky Trio. But alas, her illness intervened and further studio recording plans had to be abandoned.
However, Zukerman, Barenboim and du Pre played the Trio at the 1972 Tel Aviv Festival and as Suvi Grubb puts it, whatever the gains and disadvantages of a live occasion, ''through it all shone a luminous performance by Jacqueline du Pre''.
The playing has gread ardour and all the immediacy of a real performance, and that more than compensates for the odd inelegance that might have been corrected in the recording studio or the occasional moment of impetuosity from the pianist in the formidable piano part. But there is nothing routine about Daniel Barenboim's playing: he takes plenty of risks and is to my mind unfailingly imaginative: it is a pity that the instrument itself is not worthy of him, for it sounds less than fresh. Zukerman also sustains a high level of intensity and I am tempted to add that at times he comes close to schmalz. However this performance has high voltage and even discounting the poignant cicurmstances which mark its issue, I found it moving.
Incidentally, they observe the traditional cut sactioned by the composer. (Pierre Amoyal, Pascal Roge and Frederic Lodeon open this out on their fine Erato recording.) However, I have to report that for all the digital remastering, the recorded sound produced by the Israeli engineers is by no means so good as any of the rivals listed above (Perlman et al. on HMV and the Borodins on Chandos); it is dryish and lacks the depth and frequency range they command. As a coldblooded collector paying money across the counter, I would probably opt for the Beaux Arts on Philips but this issue is of course a rather special document and supplements rather than displaces those listed above.'