Comparing Notes on Piano Trios

Everyone is looking for gimmicks (read: sex) to sell classical music these days, and for EMI it is the skimpy black dress. Within the span of a couple of months, the once stately English company has released recordings of the same popular Dvorak and Shostakovich piano trios by the slick Eroica Trio, classical music’s Vanna White wannabes, and the Ahn Trio, three striking Juilliard-trained Korean sisters.

The Ahn is preferable in the accomplishment of its playing, its musicality and even its hipness (though not revealed here, the sisters are well-known for their flair with cutting-edge new music).

Switching back and forth between these discs is the aural equivalent of sitting in the optometrist’s chair. Flip to the Eroica, and there is a blurry (if pleasant) haze; flip to the Ahn, and a sharp, startling focus. The Ahn may not quite capture the essence of the Gypsy panache of the Dvorak or the Russian dementia of Shostakovich, but its playing is vibrant and exact, and it adds an elegy by Joseph Suk is an excellent transition.

The Eroica, in no mood to leave its audience with an emotional Shostakovichian catharsis (however much its interpretation waters that down), end their disc with a treacly version of Rachmaninoff’s sentimental Vocalise.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.