Smetana & Schubert: Piano Trios album review – immensely promising debut

This is the Trio Bohémo’s first CD, and it’s an immensely promising debut. Schubert’s great E flat Piano Trio D929 and Smetana’s Trio in G minor Op 15 do not make the most obvious pairing: composed 28 years apart, they belong to utterly different musical worlds. But the freshness and energy of the Bohémo’s playing quickly erases any suggestion of a mismatch.

The Czech performers’ full-blooded approach suits the highly wrought Smetana trio marginally more convincingly than the more expansive Schubert. Composed in the wake of the death of Smetana’s eldest daughter at the age of just four and a half, its tragic cast is unmistakable – from the lament of the opening bars through the funeral march at the heart of its central movement, and the almost manic intensity with which the finale opens. The Bohémo register all of this with maximum intensity. Sometimes they push just a little too hard, and the tone of the strings becomes harsh. Equally, there are moments in the Schubert when a little more lyrical sweetness and a more relaxed manner might have been appropriate. But overall their approach to the challenges of what are two of the greatest works in the piano-trio repertory is utterly convincing.

Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify