Three other great recordings
Trio Wanderer
f anything, the Trio Wanderer offers an even wider range of tonal colouring than the Smetana Trio, though the performers are not quite as reckless as their Czech colleagues in the approach to the. What really puts this performance on the highest level is the eloquence in the Passacaglia, a moving tribute to the memory of Shostakovich’s closest friend. Controversially, the players don’t follow Shostakovich’s request for the strings to put their mutes on near the end of the finale, but this doesn’t diminish the power or intensity of the playing.
