The three piano trios on this release are linked loosely by the theme of remembrance. In the case of the , of , it is perhaps the music of , specifically the latter's , that is remembered, while the , is suffused with the 20-year-old composer's unrequited love for , and the of looks back to the Basque folk music of his childhood, absorbed through his mother, a native of Basque country. However, as so often with the best recordings, there is a subsidiary theme that adds flavor. These are all more or less early works, in the cases of and very early, while the trio was composed in 1914, when he was truly hitting his stride. It is the youthful quality of these works that the captures so well. The , with a remarkable quality of free lyricism bumping up against the composer's rapidly evolving formal thinking, is especially strong, and the , comparatively less often heard, has a sweeping quality that at once evokes its Tchaikovskian model and looks toward the mature composer. The is perhaps not quite on the same level, vacillating between its folkish quality and a threatening mood probably attributable to the gathering storm clouds of World War I, but in general, this is a strongly emotional album of three trios that fit together at multiple levels, with fine sound from Suffolk's Potton Hall. ~ James Manheim