01. - 03. Piano Trio in D major, op.70 no.1 'Ghost' [28'20]
04. - 07. Piano Trio in B-flat major, op.97 'Archduke' [40'54]
Eggner Trio (Georg Eggner- violin, Florian Eggner- cello and Christoph Eggner- piano)
Live Classics LCL806 (recorded December 2006; CD released in 2008)
(digital download; flacs, cover and inlay scans, no booklet)
Recording venue: Steppenwolf Studio, Betuwe, Netherlands
Recording engineer: Slava Poprugin; Producer: unknown
Despite the record label's name, these are actually studio recordings with excellent sound quality.
Some 10 years ago, I experienced two of the finest chamber music concerts that I have ever attended, given at our fine local concert hall here in the remote far north of New Zealand, when these three Austrian brothers Eggner, of the eponymous trio, toured the country. In one of the concerts, they played the other Beethoven op.70 piano trio and brought out the genial humour of the work as I have never heard before or since. It's the only chamber music concert that I have attended where the audience broke out into spontaneous laughter at the end of a movement.
Unfortunately the Eggners haven't recorded op.70 no.2, but here they perform the two most popular Beethoven trios with equal aplomb. If given the impossible task of itemising my very favourite pieces of music, the Archduke Trio would be very high on the list and this recording, whilst not quite supplanting the Storioni Trio's recording on period instruments (for Challenge Classics) comes quite close, along with the van Baerle Trio's recording (also for Challenge Classics). Isabelle Faust and friends recording with period instruments for Harmonia Mundi would have also been on the list if it hadn't been for the coupling - an impossibly drab and dour performance of op.70 no.2. Interesting that both period instrument recordings omit the lengthy repeat in the Scherzo of the Archduke.
Download from MEGA.