The Eroica Trio Beethoven
Released: October 7, 2003 Origination Year: 2003 Time: 59:06 Tracks: 6 Produced by: Jiri Gemrot Style: Studio Format: CD Enhancement: None Label: Angel/EMI Records
Track Listing Triple Concerto, Opus 56 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Ronde alla Tolacca Trio for Piano I. Allegro con brio II. Adagio III. Tema con variazioni
The Eroica Trio Ericka Nickrenz: Piano Adela Pena: Violin Sara Sant' Ambrogio: Cello Prague chamber Orchestra: Opus 56 Only

Ludwig Von Beethoven is perhaps one of the most well known composers of our time. Though many might believe that he only composed orchestral music, given the popularity of his nine symphonies, this belief is incorrect. In fact, Beethoven wrote quite a number of other types of compositions for specific instruments as well as smaller groups of musicians. This recording concentrates on two such compositions, Triple Concerto, Opus 56, and Piano Trio, Opus 11.

The first of these compositions, Triple Concerto is somewhat of an exploration between the larger ensembles of instruments and the smaller ones, namely chamber ensembles. Beethoven found that there were times that certain instruments or instrumental characteristics within the greater fabric of a large scale composition that allowed them to stand out. To this end, he wrote this Concerto to explore just what could be done with these instruments alone, without all the other instruments playing in the background.

The second of these compositions is a fairly energetic chamber music composition which once again explores the reaches of certain instruments. Although Piano Trio, Opus 11, is normally performed as a combination of clarinet, cello and piano, this particular recording is somewhat different. In addition to his major composition, Beethoven left notes on this same performance using the violin, cello and piano, a more classical arrangement and the one used to record this album.

With all this exploration of musical texture and structural composition, it is necessary to chose musicians with the ability and willingness to go beyond the scored music. Luckily such a trio of musicians has been making headlines for sometime in the world of classical music, The Eroica Trio. From the days of childhood, through the rigors of Juilliard, until today, this group of three talented women has been making music in a way that only they seem to be capable of creating. Their abilities blend to create a harmony that does the musical composition of Beethoven justice and allows it to reach new heights of musical splendor and involvement.

The album itself captures the skill and expertise at performing this type of music by both the Eroica Trio and the Prague Chamber Orchestra to a great extent. While I would recommend this album based on the performance of the artists, I did find that it had a certain lack of openness in the more dynamic passages. There appeared to be a bit of compression which took away some of the power and made the passages far less involving then they would otherwise have been.

Also, while the album does have the ability to convey a decent amount of transient information, it stops short of giving life to each of the instruments. There is a definite loss in characteristic decay by the stringed instruments which robs them of the ability to generate more then a cursory image of their full potential. Although it isn’t uncommon in many CDs, it is sad to find it where you can actually sense that there was more then you are hearing from the playback of this album.

In short, this is an album which I believe is worth owning. However, while I enjoyed the performance of the musicians, the sound quality did put a damper on my overall enjoyment of Beethoven’s compositions. I can’t help but wonder how much better this album would have been if there had been more care taken in the preservation of sonic information.