There is nothing subtle or surprising about the
Trio Solisti's piano trio arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The violin and cello take the big tunes and the piano takes the big chords. The strings double the piano in thickly scored passages and supply scales and trills and tremolos as needed at climaxes. The piano dominates in tuttis and provides ballast and weight in fortes. While
Ravel's orchestral arrangement of the piano original illuminates Mussorgsky's music with undreamed of colors, the
Trio Solisti's piano trio arrangement merely makes it bigger and louder.
The
Trio Solisti's work here is sensual, even if it may strike some as less than musical at times. They make the lightning flash and the wind howl, always going for dramatic effect and achieving it. In
Ravel's Piano Trio, the
Trio Solisti is nowhere near as demonstrative, but for many fans of the French composer, it is still likely to seem excessive. Showing no sign of typically French restraint, the
Trio Solisti tears into the Piano Trio with undisguised passion, making the music sound more Russian than French, and more histrionic than cogent. Still, as before, this is clearly the effect the
Trio Solisti is striving for, and there is little denying the group achieves it.