Lang Lang/Repin/Maisky: Piano Trios Youth plus experience equals passionate communal music-making

4 Stars out of 5
 
Left on his own to rampage, or twinkle, or sob at the piano, Lang Lang (below) can be a worrying creature, a purveyor of tricks and shallow emotions. But beneath the Liberace touches and those eyes gazing up to Heaven, the world’s No 1 piano pin-up still retains the reflexes of a seriously gifted musician. And his first CD of chamber music — Russian repertoire, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov — brings them closer to the surface than usual.

The partners in this enterprise, recorded following performances at the Verbier Festival this summer, may cause some music lovers to gulp. There’s Mischa Maisky, the mercurial and emotional Latvian cellist, often partnered with the pianist Martha Argerich, similarly volcanic. On violin, please welcome Vadim Repin — another strong personality, and a violinist in the forcefully lyrical Russian style associated with David Oistrakh.