The Briggs Piano Trio
AVIE AV 2390 Hans Gál Trio in E and Variations on a Popular Viennese Tune
Shostakovich Trio no 2 in E minor
Gramophone Editor’s Choice October 2018 and a November 2018 MusicWeb International Recording of the Month
The playing throughout is simply exquisite. Recommended with all possible enthusiasm.
Gramophone
The Briggs Trio responds to the style with enormous affection, following the mood changes from passionate to witty with eagle ears, and it sounds as if they have been living with the music for a long time.
BBC Music Magazine
The Briggs Piano Trio are excellent advocates of this music, preserving its essential charm, never over-forcing the livelier passages, and achieving an impeccably judged balance between parts. (Gál)
This, as much as the two Gál pieces, is a performance of huge dedication and expressive honesty. (Shostakovich)
The Europadisc Review
The Briggs Trio do a terrific job in introducing this unfairly neglected work to the public…one can only hope that this wonderful performance will lead to its incorporation into the mainstream repertoire. (Gál)
This is an inspirational performance of one of the greatest chamber music works of the 20th Century. (Shostakovich)
Overall, this is outstanding playing by the Briggs Trio and this recording is recommended without reservation.
MusicWeb International
Together they lend most eloquent advocacy to this rewarding repertoire. (Gál)
…these thoughtful, uncommonly articulate performers more than hold their own in a fiercely crowded field. (Shostakovich)
Classical Ear
Toccata Hans Gál Piano Quartet in B flat major and Violin Sonatinas
with Katalin Kertész, Nichola Blakey and Cressida Nash
Pianist Sarah Beth Briggs and her string-playing colleagues lend this delightful score memorably persuasive advocacy, relishing its superb craftsmanship, tenderness of expression and fecund lyricism, nowhere more potently displayed than in the hauntingly lovely Andante con moto slow movement. (Piano quartet)
Katalin Kertész and Sarah Beth Briggs forge an outstandingly eloquent partnership. (Violin Sonatinas.)
Classical Ear
The piano writing is virtuosic, and Sarah Beth Briggs, no stranger to Gál’s music – meets the technical challenges with aplomb. In fact, all four players contour the ebb and flow of the music with consummate skill and authority, never once losing sight of the rhetoric.
MusicWeb International
Briggs, Kertész, Blakey and Nash audibly relish its distinctive structure and melodic invention. (Piano quartet.)
Quietly terrific. (Violin Sonatinas)
Musical Opinion
Fanfare Magazine – featured on Mark Novak’s ‘Want List’ for 2018