Divine Art 27803 - Piano Trios

Trio Santoliquido - Ornella Puliti Santoliquido (piano), Arrigo Pelliccia (violin) and Massimo Amfitheatrov (cello) - formed in Rome in 1942. Their delightful recording here of Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor was probably one of their first engagements together; thereafter we have a long wait for further recorded material, again by Beethoven but recorded some ten years later, in the mono LP era of the early 1950's.

Although the Trio went on to make a number of other discs for Deustche Grammophon - both formally as Trio Santoliquido and as participants in other musical ensembles, and were very highly regarded in their day as musicians, it is perhaps a result of the relative sparsity of their recorded oeuvre which has caused them to be largely forgotten.

This CD release, a Pristine Audio restoration for The Divine Art Record Company, aims to shed a little more light on this wonderful Trio. Santoliquido's piano playing, in particular, is magical - she had a delicacy of touch and finesse which is quite wonderfully captured here.

From a restorer's point of view the shellac recordings (of the first of the three Trios), despite quite high hiss levels, were a joy to work with - a fine example of German audio engineering. The DG vinyl was more problemmatic, with obvious drop-in edits leaving treble loss to be recitfied, and a section of the Variations pitched flat where a retake had been spliced in from a tape recorded at a very slightly different speed. All in a day's work with these recordings, it often seems!

The Trio Santoliquido was founded in Rome in 1942 and from 1956 also played as the Quartetto di Roma with violist Bruno Giuranna. The group suffered from being overshadowed by the Trio di Trieste, perhaps because its members had other musical interests. All three taught and were soloists; the violinist took part in the Quintetto Boccherini and played viola; and the Russian-born cellist was equally busy.

The recording of the C minor trio, new to me, is delectable and more fine-boned than the contemporary one by the BBN Trio from Paris. The pianist is a classicist to her fingertips, throwing off pearl-like runs of notes with a consistently lovely tone, and her artistry is fully matched by her colleagues. The recording is also superb for 1942.

The “Ghost” will be more familiar to more readers, as it was re-issued on Heliodor. It is as splendid as I remember it, with a heartfelt slow movement. The players do not make as much of the introduction to the “Kakadu” Variations as some groups do, but give a very enjoyable performance. The early LP sound is slightly less agreeable than that from 78 rpm. This lovely disc carries an unequivocal recommendation.