Antonin Dvorak

“These four beautiful works, which range from the lyrical and cheerful to the intense and even the bleak, especially in the grim and severe Piano Trio No. 3, has never been better performed and recorded than on these two wonderful discs.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 *****

"[Le Cid] Bonynge's version is among the finest yet, with the most seductive orchestral playing, superbly recorded, with the remastering for CD adding to the glitter and colour of Messenet's often witty scoring... In Martinon's hands, Massenet's tunes fizz and effervesce like the best champagne...the astonishing vivid Decca recording... Is superbly transferred to CD." - Penguin Guide to Compact Discs & DVDs 2005/6.

“In Martinon's hands the tunes fizz and effervesce like the best champagne, while the colourful reflective numbers have picture-postcard atmosphere.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

'A vital ingredient in the Smetana Trio’s success is the quality of their string sound, its variety of tone and the handling of vibrato. Certainly, there are many details to admire in these performances, but in the end it is the Trio’s unrivalled feeling of ensemble that generates results unmatched in the catalogue.' Jan Smaczny - BBC Music Magazine

“…the Smetana Trio, excellently recorded, deliver landmark performances of both trios. The developmental intensity of the F minor Trio's first movement has rarely seemed more incandescent or the slow movement more winningly lyrical… it is the Trio's unrivalled feeling of ensemble that generate results unmatched in the catalogue.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2006 *****

“Not surprisingly, the performance by the Smetana Trio is thoroughly idiomatic, with the many dumka speed-changes sounding totally natural and spontaneous. What instantly strikes the ear is the delicacy, the piano relatively light to bring out the filigree textures of much of the writing.
They also play with a hushed concentration, keeping the different sections tautly woven together. In the fifth of the six movements, there is a delightful pay-off at the end, and the finale is taken at a thrillingly fast tempo, though light textures bring complete clarity.
In No 3 there is an apt if subtle shift in the recording balance, with the piano weightier, reflecting the Brahmsian quality of much of the writing. Though in the conventional four movements instead of the six of No 4, it is a work on a bigger scale. Not surprisingly, the Czech flavours are brought out strikingly. The Supraphon sound is excellent.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Not surprisingly, the performance by the Smetana Trio - cellist Jan Páleníček is the son of the original Smetana Trio pianist, Josef - is thoroughly idiomatic, with the many dumka speed-changes sounding totally natural and spontaneous. In No. 3 there is an apt if subtle shift in the recording balance, with the piano weightier, reflecting the Brahmsian quality of much of the writing. Not surprisingly, the Czech flavours are brought out more strikingly than with the Florestan Trio. It is also a rather warmer, more passionate reading...” Gramophone Magazine, Awards 2006