The Piano Trio, Moeran's grandest chamber work, was first heard in 1921 but extensively revised for publication four years later. Cast in four movements, it is less distinctive than its companions (there are plentiful echoes of John Ireland, with whom Moeran was studying privately - and Ravel's Piano Trio can be heard loud and clear in the Scherzo), yet in its heady lyrical flow the piece has much in common with such contemporaneous offerings as the Violin Sonata and the orchestral In the Mountain Country and the First Rhapsody. The Joachim Trio give a thoughtful, beautifully prepared rendering,sympathetically captured by the microphones.
In summary, an enterprising, beautifully engineered and uncommonly generous anthology - and a release, I fancy, already destined for inclusion in my 'Critics Choice' come the year's end.
GRAMOPHONE (Andrew Achenbach)