KEY POINTS:
How pleasant it is to be reminded of Gautier Capucon's brilliant NZSO tour by picking up his recent Virgin Classics recording of Schubert's complete music for piano trio.
There are so many pluses on this CD, from EMI's initiative in giving it a New Zealand release to its
attractive two-for-one price.
Cellist Gautier Capucon and violinist Renaud Capucon are fraternal perfection, and it is impossible to listen to their dovetailed harmony on the very first track and not think it must have something to do with them being brothers.
The third partner in this most enjoyable outing is pianist Frank Braley, whose contributions are suavely moulded to the lines of his colleagues.
The blend is immaculate but along the way individual personalities still make their mark with a sense of give and take which gives this outing a real Schubertian naturalness.
These are major works, written a year before the composer's death in 1827.
We may hear presentiments of tragedy in the C minor melancholy of the second trio's Andante con moto, but these lyrical Frenchmen do not let us forget that - as with most of Schubert - song is never far away.
The Capucons are also team members on a triple CD of Martha Argerich and Friends Live from the Lugano Festival 2006.
This is an inexpensive import worth pursuing. You will find rarities here - Debussy Nocturnes transcribed for two pianos by Ravel, and Schumann's Fantasy Pieces on flugelhorn. Argerich takes an indomitable lead in Schumann's Piano Quartet.
Prepare to be swept away by the Capucons in Schumann's mood-tossed D minor Trio, while Gautier dispenses the Mendelssohn D major Sonata with just the right breeziness.
The set ends with the cellist being backed up by a wind band for a decidedly wacky Friedrich Gulda Concerto.
Capucon told me he was introduced to this work by Argerich, and he got quite carried away when describing the raunchy jazz riffs, tongue-in-cheek Bach moments and mock-heroic military march.
Schubert's melancholy C minor Andante con Moto creeps into one of its movements but, this being the impish Gulda, it has to relent to the general merriment that surrounds it.
* Schubert, Piano Trios (Virgin Classics, 365476)
* Martha Argerich and Friends Live from the Lugano Festival 2006 (EMI 89241)