Baroque - The Eroica Trio
The most arresting aspect of this disc is the playing. The members of the Eroica Trio are splendid technically and tonally, and their ensemble is impeccable. Musically, the recording is misnamed and misguided. There is nothing baroque about it, except the names of the composers. The trio's intense, throbbing, driven style is appropriate for the lush, romantic music with which it made its name, but is far removed from the pristine purity of the baroque. Not surprisingly, the players choose the most romanticized, overloaded editions available; moreover, many of the pieces are of dubious authorship or not written for their instruments. Their justification is that baroque composers themselves made countless transcriptions of their own and others' works, and that later virtuoso arrangers created their own tradition, but the former preserved the originals' style, while the latter are now widely frowned upon. Their most unfortunate selection is an arrangement of Bach's famous chaconne by an English film composer: blown up with newly invented material and grandiose cadenzas, it simulates a full orchestra.