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Luis de Orueta   14/3/2002	Subject: Opus 18 versus Il Trittico Message: After hearing several times the two available recordings of the great Piano Trios, I must say that I beguin to like both. Initially all the interest goes for Opus 18. Their perfomance is lively,fluent,natural and elegant and make Raff´s music thoroughly enjoyble. However,... Il trittico´s version is not at all insensitive . In fact, the Forth Trio sounds more important, and even the tempo of its third movement deserves the slow motion and pathos which they give it towards the end. Perhaps the worst of Il Trittico is in the 2nd Trio , where there is no comparison with Opus 18. I would recomend Forum readers to judge for themselves, as both recordings are well above average.
John Boyer   14/3/2002	Trio Opus 18 ? IP: Logged Message: The CPO recordings are performed by the Trio Opus 8, not 18. You're 125% too high! I have not heard the Arte Nova performances, though I look forward to it. One negative thing I noticed about the otherwise fine Opus 8 performances is the wiry sound of the violinist. The more stressful the playing, the thinner his tone becomes. Listen to the stretto at the end of the finale in the Second Trio, for example. Beyond this, though, I have enjoyed the CPO discs immensely.
Jamie   14/3/2002	RE: Opus 18 versus Il Trittico IP: Logged Message: l can't imagine that the ll Trittico recordings of the trios could be any better than those of Opus 8. To my ears at least, and l think that Mark's review bears this out, Opus 8 plays with tremendous passion and conveys the impression that these works are the greatest masterpieces. Read the review in Fanfare, where the reviewer feels that the Raff trios (especially in such persuasive performances) deserve to be grouped with those of Schubert, Brahms, and Dvorak as the best trios of the 19th century. ln addition, read my own review posted at amazon.com. l have personally made Raff converts in my office by playing for them the beginning of the extraorinarily beautiful slow movement of the 4th trio.
Mark   15/3/2002	RE: Opus 18 versus Il Trittico IP: Logged Message: There's no point really in my repeating all the points which I made in the three reviews on the web site. I can't refrain from adding my two 'pennorth however! For me Opus 8 take chances which generally pay off. It's as if these four works were already mainstays of the repertoire with a generally accepted "standard" of performance and Opus 8 are offering fresh insights. Il Triticco serve up those "standard" performances. In that sense there is nothing wrong with them and certainly their intonation is sometimes more secure than the cpo team (especially the Opus 8 violinist as John notes). It's difficult to be much more precise. Generally I get a buzz from the cpo disks which I don't from Arte Nova's set. The exception is the 4th. Trio where I feel that Il Triticco serve up a more convincing whole. They certainly make a much better case for the finale than do Opus 8 in whose hands it borders on becoming one of those unfortunate humdrum note-spinning movements with which Raff can sometimes disappoint. But I wouldn't want to be without either set and the Arte Nova set is so cheap that there's no reason to be. Cheers.