Description

It must have been a most marvellous concert!
The breath of orchestra, the richness of the instruments begin to shine through in the Franck Trio.

Klassik heute 4/1998

As always when it comes to Kagan, Richter and small labels: Buy these while you can.

Pulse 97

The breathtaking examples of the late Sviatoslav Richter’s inspirational gifts as a chamber music player come from a major series of discs – more than 20 of them so far – released as a tribute not to Richter but to the violinist Oleg Kagan whose wife Natalia Gutman is the cellist in these trios. The chemistry between the three musicians was clearly something special, and these recordings have a sense of occasion about them that is quite thrilling. They are typical late Richter performances: there are spatterings of wrong notes, and moments of faulty intonation, but the way in which the music is reinvented before one’s ears is unique.
Franck’s Trio, part of Op. 1, acquires a mysterious insistency, with Ravel is floated with extreme delicacy.

Andrew Clements
The Guardian 9/00