The Piano Trios Nos 3, 4 & 5

"These very musical young players seem to think and breathe as one without forfeiting individuality of expression; this comes out most of all in the little details of timing that add point to a phrase, a cadence, a shading of the harmony. You can hear it in the B flat Trio, K502, both in the first movement, where Mozart uses the same four-note phrase with so many different senses and emotional implications, and in the Adagio, with its cantabile lines, so responsive to affectionate shaping. The soft, liquid tone that Stefan Mendl draws from the piano is another delight here, and it is of a piece with the sweetness and refined line produced by Wolfgang Redik.

Possibly this work comes off a little better than K542. The E major Trio certainly receives a strong, well-defined performance - the first-movement development, with its counterpoint and its climactic passagework, is tremendous - but maybe this subtle piece responds even better to a more restrained reading, with the dynamic contrasts less marked. The dynamic scale throughout the disc is large, considerably larger than was available to Mozart: which is not (of course) an argument for playing modern instruments as if they were period ones, but it is one for remembering what the composer envisaged and taking some clues from that. K548, a more direct piece, comes off very well, the spirited rhythms and the glittering piano passagework, not to mention the rich instrumental interplay, getting good value from these fine players."
(Gramophone)