Bach, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Buxtehude, Loeillet & Lotti

COMPOSERS: Albinoni,Bach,Buxtehude,Loeillet & Lotti,Vivaldi
LABELS: EMI
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Baroque
WORKS: Works
PERFORMER: Eroica Trio
CATALOGUE NO: CDC 5 56873 2

In its mixed programme, its performance style and its use of a piano as keyboard continuo, this disc stands defiantly in the face of current trends. The Eroica Trio consists of a violinist, a cellist and a pianist, all of them expressively sensitive players. Yet the way in which these musicians approach the music of Bach, Vivaldi, Buxtehude and others is very much out of step with the times. No bad thing, in a way – it’s good to hear artists of this calibre bucking orthodoxy – but the real problem is that a piano, especially one that sounds as plummy as this one, simply does not carry weight of conviction as continuo support. On the terms dictated by this performance philosophy the Vivaldi and the Loeillet Sonatas come over rather well, but the Buxtehude work, very much a mid-Baroque piece, sounds more than faintly absurd. Much the least congenial events on the disc, however, are an extravagant, unidiomatic arrangement for the trio of the Chaconne from Bach’s D minor Partita for unaccompanied violin (BWV 1004) and another of the wretched ‘Albinoni’ Adagio. If I tell you that those responsible for the artists’ makeup, hair-styling, clothing, evening gowns, shoes, cocktail dresses, corsets and skirts are all credited, you’ll have some idea of the muddled thinking behind this bizarre enterprise. Nicholas Anderson