The French composer Eduardo Lalo was a most admired composer in his day. His Symphonie espagnole, for violin and orchestra is now his most recorded...

The French composer Eduardo Lalo was a most admired composer in his day. His Symphonie espagnole, for violin and orchestra is now his most recorded and performed work by quite a distance, with over a dozen versions in the current catalog. The Cello Concerto has also several available recordings together with one or two versions of the violin concerto, the Concert Russe, the Piano Concerto and his Symphony in C minor which is available occasionally.

With his two piano trios composed around 1850-52 Lalo became one of the first French composers to write for this combination and he went onto produce a third trio almost thirty years later.

The four-movement form of the trios follows the Germanic model of his contemporaries Schumann and Brahms with a sound world somewhere between Mendelssohn and Schumann. These engaging and colorful piano trios have an enormous vitality, combined with a certain grittiness which took me by surprise. The only potential drawback is Lalo’s failure to state memorable themes, which is probably the reason that these works have not remained in the repertoire unlike those piano trios of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.

The talented Trio Parnassus are most persuasive, conveying a marvelous spirit which gives sparkle and joy to the proceedings. I particularly like how the players demonstrate an attentive ear for one another together with enviable individual élan. Chai Chow is a marvellous chamber pianist, always in control, leading the trio forward with tremendous assurance.

The Trio Parnassus are clearly a most talented ensemble, giving impressive readings of these attractive works. The sound quality from MDG is very fine, if just lacking a touch of transparency at the expense of warmth and the booklet notes are informative but perhaps, somewhat too technical in parts.

This is a most beautiful and appealing release, guaranteed to please chamber music lovers.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)