the Gould Piano Trio performs the trio as beautifully as one could ask, and joined by violist David Adams, they play the quartet with the fullness of passion it deserves. As a duo, Gould and Frith are charming in the pieces for violin and piano. For all chamber music lovers, this is strongly recommended.

To read the complete review, please visit Fanfare online.

Not a cycle as such, but all of Stanford’s chamber music for more than one stringed instrument and piano has now been recorded. The première recording of the unpublished Second Piano Quartet reveals a major work and the new version of Piano Trio no.1 is at least the equal of its predecessor by the Pirasti Trio. The three beautiful pieces for violin and piano are premières too. © MusicWeb International

The playing of all the music on this CD is simply superb. The Gould Trio, David Adams and Benjamin Frith are bold advocates for this important and interesting music. It is finely recorded. The notes by Jeremy Dibble are extremely helpful.

This is one of the best CDs of British chamber music to be released in recent years. It is essential listening for anyone who loves Stanford and/or British chamber music. How anyone could listen to this CD and still believe that Stanford’s music is ‘as dry as dust’ totally evades me. Read complete review

Charles Villiers Stanford was such a wonderful composer, it hardly needs saying here, and Naxos has done well by him. So well that I ungratefully wonder whether we might have one or two of his operas (Much Ado about Nothing, anyone?). But here is a stylish exploration that shows yet again that our concert halls should be programming more Stanford. I’d go.

Two superior Stanford works—and another feather in this ensemble’s cap

I’m delighted to be able to report that the Gould Piano Trio are magnificently stylish and sympathetic champions, and in the Piano Quartet they are joined by the excellent David Adams on the viola. Benefiting from top-notch production values throughout, this generously filled disc should be snapped up without delay.

Dublin-born Sir Charles Villiers Stanford[’s]…music on this recording makes it clear that he was one of the very finest composers of the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Stanford’s ‘Legend’ and his ‘Jig’ and ‘Hush Song’…are gorgeous and subtly Irish. Why these pieces are not part of the standard violin and piano literature is a mystery to me.

All the playing on this recording is excellent. I’m extremely grateful to these marvelous musicians for introducing me to these newlyunearthed treasures.

To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.

The First Piano Trio… remained dormant until the present recording and a performance by the same forces in 2010. The manuscript has been edited by Jeremy Dibble, who also provides the authoritative notes.

…no one who buys this CD—which deserves to be a bestseller—is likely to conclude that Stanford himself had failed to deliver. Furthermore, while Stanford’s use of first-movement sonata form in his symphonies always retained a certain academic correctness—and in fact he gradually abandoned the symphony in favour of the Irish Rhapsody for his major orchestral statements—he allowed himself a more inventive approach to form in his chamber music.