Recording schemes that might seem inspired in theory sometimes come unstuck in practice. The idea of Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov recording Schumann’s three piano trios and pairing them with his concertos for violin, cello and piano, all performed on instruments of the mid-19th century, certainly promised well, but the results have been distinctly uneven.
This final disc, though, is easily the most convincing of the set. Queyras gives an intimately conversational account of the Cello Concerto, never turning it into a virtuoso vehicle for its own sake, and persuades the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado to give him equally gentle, refined support. In the D minor Trio, both his and Faust’s supplely expressive phrasing goes a long way towards mitigating Melnikov’s tendency to over-assertiveness, too, though the pianist’s playing is by no means one-dimensional and he conjures some delicate, silvery sonorities from the 1847 Streicher instrument that he has used throughout the series.
