Four or five technologies ago, back in the days of shellac, Beethoven′s charming Serenade for string trio was accorded, by the unrivaled team of Szymon Goldberg, Paul Hindemith, and Emanuel Feuermann, one of the greatest recordings of chamber music ever made. That their version seems to be unavailable now in any format—I certainly couldn′t find it on my shelves or in any store or catalog I tried-might be said to be lucky for the Gaede Trio. But this Austrian-and German-based ensemble hardly needs luck, for its performances, of Beethoven and also of Eisler and Ysaÿe, are worthy to stand alongside the best ever, even though its Serenade does not quite erase Goldberg and partners from my memory. (That classic version, by the way, is not mentioned in any review of an op. 8 recording that I have found in the past ten or more years of Fanfare—maybe I am just exceptionally fortunate to have heard it.) "The sound is superb, the program is unusual, and the playing is first-rate," concluded John W. Lambert, reviewing the Gaede′s coupling of Beethoven op. 9/1 with works by Bach/Mozart and Schnittke in 22:6, and I would say the same of this new disc. What a pleasure, by the way, to encounter a record company that offers a sensible catalog number, instead of the sesquipedalian strings of digits, hyphens, spaces, and whatnot that we usually have to cope with! (...)
Bernard Jacobson

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