Schumann: Complete Works for Piano Trio

"In some circles Schumann is regarded as having been best suited to composing suites, songs, fantasies and other genres that gave full vent to his teeming musical imagination. He was less good, the thinking goes, at channeling his voice into symphonies, sonatas and chamber music forms. This take on Schumann is challenged by an exciting new recording of his complete works for piano trio, performed by three superb musicians who play together often: the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, the violinist Christian Tetzlaff and the cellist Tanja Tetzlaff (Mr. Tetzlaff’s sister). They play every phrase and episode of these elusive scores with vitality, insight and character. The trios emerge as works full of invention and intricacy and also of structural integrity. The Trio No. 1 in D minor, written in a two-week burst of inspiration in the summer of 1847, may have been inspired by Mendelssohn’s piano trio in the same key. A surging first movement is followed by a restless scherzo. ..." (Anthony Tommasini, "Classical Recordings," New York Times, 8/18/11).
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