The Dichter trio (Théotime Langlois de Swarte on violin, Hanna Salzenstein on cello and Fiona Mato on piano) join baritone Samuel Hasselhorn and pianist Jorge Gonzalez Buajasan to host an intimate evening such as might have been experienced in the living room of Clara (Wieck) and Robert Schumann. The programme devotes much of its attention to Clara’s refined music, but also to some of the couple’s contemporaries such as the Dane Niels Gade (who is still far too little known), Brahms, Mendelssohn and Theodor Kirchner. Bach and Scarlatti were the two ‘old-timers’ who were just beginning to be rediscovered at the time. In short, with Robert’s music, this is an extensive programme that gives an excellent idea of what might have appeared at the time to be the very best of modern music and the very best of that of the past. The intimate atmosphere is perfectly rendered by a careful recording, focused on the sharpness of detail. The musicians play on historic instruments from the collection of the Musée de la Musique de la Philharmonie de Paris. In solo, duo or trio formats, the performers interact with ease. Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op. 80, the pièce de résistance of the album, is given a tender and beautifully lyrical reading of the melodies that are so compelling. The rest of the programme is on a par with this, and I’d like to make special mention of the very fine, committed vocal character of baritone Hasselhorn. A little gem of beauty and refinement from Harmonia Mundi.
