Israel Piano Trio

Track Listings

1. Aaron Copland: Vitebsk (1929)

2. Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)

3. Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)

4. Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)

5. Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)

6. Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)

7. Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)

8. Oedoen Partos: Fantasia (1977)

9. Abel Ehrlich: Piano Trio (1986)

10. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)

11. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)

12. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)

13. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Since its 1978 debut in New York, the Israel Piano Trio has been highly acclaimed. This CD includes works by Jewish (Ernest Bloch, Aaron Copland) and Israeli (Partos, Alotin, Ehrlich, Braun) composers, some of which were especially composed for the Trio.

Customer Reviews:

Uneven quality but great value.......2007-04-30

Brilliant Classics has found a niche with their extremely low-price multi-disc collections of the work of a single composer or performer. The Bach, Mozart and Chopin Complete Editions are legitimately considered to be artistic and economical triumphs. But the Masterworks series are more uneven. Currently available from Amazon France at about a buck per CD, they're still a bargain for those interested in quickly building a music library. But it's worth keeping a few things in mind. Unlike the Bach and Mozart Editions, these are not always historically informed performances. In this Mendelssohn set, the Hanover Band puts in a cameo (in Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage), but most of the ensembles use modern instruments, techniques and proportions. This doesn't always work out, as in the case of the ponderously heavy recordings of the String Symphonies by an apparently full complement of Gewandhausorchester Leipzig strings (Mendelssohn likely wrote these early works for a much smaller group). The caliber of the performances varies too, ranging from good to poor, and from marquis musicians such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau to a few Dutch who-dats. The chamber musicians generally acquit themselves well (though the Octet recording is marred by an engineering flaw in the last movement, distortion, at least on my copy). But the symphonies suffer from some substandard performances, such as the Italian Symphony's live recording with not only audience noise but also ensemble flaws such as a distracting clarinet squeak in the first movement's recapitulation. Another strike is the lack of program notes. Brilliant's Complete Editions provide a booklet or CD-ROM with program notes, but here you'll need to do your own research.

Despite these shortcomings, this set is still good value (at least at Amazon France's current price of 31 Euros). And it's a fine way to become acquainted with Mendelssohn's music.

A superb collection of Mendelssohn.......2007-03-24

Let me preface this by saying that most of these works were not new to me - I own many other Mendelssohn CDs and have enjoyed his compositions for some time now. Also, this set is available much cheaper elsewhere, particularly from European retailers.
The symphonies are well-performed. 'Reformation' is an inspired live recording. The 12 string symphonies, written in Mendelssohn's youth, are also included. The concertos are exceptional - the violin concerto is as good as you'll find anywhere. The oratorios Elijah and Paulus are included, as well as the complete chamber works and a diverse assortment of choral works. The last few discs include the Lied ohne worte, the epic organ sonatas, and excellent renditions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Fingal's Cave. While there are a few sketchy performances in the choral and chamber works, the performances and recordings are generally very solid, and the body of work couldn't be better.

Average customer rating:

The Perlman Edition (Box Set)

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Toccatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Itzhak Perlman Collection

Manufacturer: EMI
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 1995-01-01

Schumann: Complete Chamber Music [Box Set]

Average customer rating:

Pretty good all around

Schumann: Complete Chamber Music [Box Set]

Manufacturer: Brilliant Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Customer Reviews:

Pretty good all around.......2007-06-18

Nothing outstanding, either in performance or sound, but solid and good.

Average customer rating:

Israel Piano Trio

Manufacturer: Beth Hatefutsoth
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000D1706
Release Date: 1995-12-01

Tracks:

Aaron Copland: Vitebsk (1929)
Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)
Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)
Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)
Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)
Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)
Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)
Oedoen Partos: Fantasia (1977)
Abel Ehrlich: Piano Trio (1986)
Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)
Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)
Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)
Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)

Album Description

Since its 1978 debut in New York, the Israel Piano Trio has been highly acclaimed. This CD includes works by Jewish (Ernest Bloch, Aaron Copland) and Israeli (Partos, Alotin, Ehrlich, Braun) composers, some of which were especially composed for the Trio.

Schubert: Quintet, D. 956; Trio, D. 581; Ave Maria; Bach: 3 Sinfonias

Average customer rating:

Three Titans at their best
One of Heifetz' most controversial chamber music recordings - and I can't make any musical sense of it

Schubert: Quintet, D. 956; Trio, D. 581; Ave Maria; Bach: 3 Sinfonias

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000E6GQ
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Customer Reviews:

Three Titans at their best.......2007-03-23

Listen to the beauty and artistry of these magnificent performers. No one like them today for sure.

One of Heifetz' most controversial chamber music recordings - and I can't make any musical sense of it.......2006-10-03

Heifetz is ever a controversial violinist and chamber music leader.

This recording of Schubert's C-major Quintet was made in 1961 and part of a series of chamber music recordings with Heifetz as band leader, now documented on RCA's Heifetz collection. I had so hated it on LP that I got rid of it years ago - something I seldom do - , but in my experience, as my knowledge of multiple versions (I am now approaching twenty of this one) and understanding of a piece grows, I become more tolerant and - well, understanding to approaches that do not correspond to my initial expectations, as I realize that there is not one interpretive "truth", but a variety of possible and legitimate approaches to what the composer wrote, each one highlighting the composition. Assessing a given interpretation means, in my opinion and practice of music listening, understanding in which interpretive tradition it fits, how well it realizes it, and, if at variance with established custom, what musical validity that specific approach may have on its own terms. With all its reckless tempos, Heifetz's recording of Brahms' second sextet has become one of my favorites, as I find that it lends extraordinary romantic fire to the piece, with no loss of lyricism. So I decided to give a new try to this one.

I find it as hateful as before.

At variance with any established tradition it is, with a vengeance. I read somewhere on the net a comment maintaining that, contrary to the cliché, Heifetz did not play everything faster, but that his clarity of articulation only gave that impression. That commentator should have used a stopwatch! These guys must have had the 5pm train to catch! Compare their timings to those of the Pro Arte Quartet, who made the first recording in 1935 (Biddulph), themselves by no means a slow reading: 14'/12'20/9'/9'17 to Heifetz's 12'47/10'22/7'37/7'45. The tempos of Felix Galimir and Marlboro partners (Sony) are unusually spacious, and they clock (1st movement repeat deducted to make things comparable) at 16/16:25/9:35/9:50. Among recent versions the Orpheus Quartet (Channel Classics) is a fast one and its timings (without 3rd movement repeat) are 14:10/13:40/8:05/9:10.

So Heifetz and partners are in a class of their own. Clearly, most of their tempo choices blatantly disregard Schubert's indications - all due consideration given to the fundamental imprecision of such literary markings. In the opening movement they don't seem to have noticed that Schubert added "ma non troppo" to his "Allegro" ; one wonders what Schubert should have written in place of "Adagio" for them to take the 2nd movement just a bit slower - "lentissimo possible"? and their Finale is taken Presto rather than the Allegretto written by Schubert. Yet, independent of the score - does it work musically?

Granted, in places it does. The Scherzo's outer sections (and Schubert has indeed written Presto here) have explosive drive, and, by stretching one's tolerance and understanding, one could consider that some 3 minutes in the central part of the adagio exude a gripping, desperate violence.

And that's it. I am well aware that how one reacts to these unusual tempos is a matter of taste, but to me the first movement sounds as the sonic equivalent of those old movies shot at 20 images/s and broadcast at TV's 25/s, or as a 33rmp played at 45rmp speed. In the sublime adagio I find both the fast tempo of the Pro Arte Quartet and the slow, time-suspended movement of the Melos Quartet with Rostropovich (DG) or Galimir and Marlboro effective and deeply moving, but this here is just to much speed and utter lack of feeling; and while I can admire the virtuosity of Heifetz's spiccato playing in the Finale, given the breakneck speed he adopts, the movement sounds as some frenzied gipsy dance rather than the vigorous Allegretto Schubert wrote. Add to that a dry recording and boxy and shrill sound that belittles the instrumental impact, and there is not much I find of value in this reading.

Fillers? Whatever its interpretive merits, the string trio comes in a sound so harsh and dry as to make its listening uncomfortable, and the Ave Maria is no more than a lachrymose trifle of the kind the 78rpm era was fond of. It does have a kind of mawkish charm, though.

Remain the three Bach three-part Sinfonias played on violin, viola and cello, quite effectively, to make one regret that Bach didn't write the equivalent of Bartok's 44 duets and frustrated that the artists recorded only three and not the whole lot, with the two-part Inventions thrown in for good measure. Wonder if anybody has? The Goldbergs were done on string trio after all.

Now it is your decision - but don't say you weren't warned.

By the way, my copy is for sale

Average customer rating:

AMERICAN MASTERS FOR THE 21ST

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Franz Schubert: Chamber Music (Box Set)

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The Best of Mendelssohn

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ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Schumann: Piano Trios
Israel Piano Trio
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Release Date: 2007-06-12

Music Review:

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1. Aaron Copland: Vitebsk (1929)
2. Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)
3. Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)
4. Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes (1924)
5. Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)
6. Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)
7. Yehezkel Braun: Trio (1988)
8. Oedoen Partos: Fantasia (1977)
9. Abel Ehrlich: Piano Trio (1986)
10. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)
11. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)
12. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)
13. Yardena Alotin (1930-1994): Trio (1979)