Word: maing
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...than as chamber music. They clearly try to make an effort at ensemble, but Stern refuses to bend his pitches down and to liven his dry tone, Ax hardly ever thinks of balance, Laredo gets lost in the acoustic din when not playing his solos, all while Yo-Yo Ma tries to play down the middle...
...quite surprising that Ax manages to dwarf Ma's usually colossal sound. One wouldn't expect such strange dynamics from a pair who have recorded all the major cello sonatas together over the last 15 years. For most of the Schumann, it seems that the strings are seated much further behind the microphone than the pianist; their resultingly tinny tones are swept away by Ax's nebulous waves of sound...
...technical expertise provided by Ax is, unfortunately, unmatched by the other members of the group. This is not to say that Ax is the best musician among them, though one might think so having only heard this disc. Still, he appears overly conscious of this fact, rumbling over Ma's smaller solos too easily...
...agree more with your assessment of Ax's playing, but I think that Yo-Yo Ma deserves a bit more credit for having the artistic integrity to try and blend with the ensemble. Admittedly, it must have been frustrating, but I feel that he remained more true to the spirit of the music than any of his colleagues, Ax included...
...then. Another peculiarity that this recording shared with the Brahms release was the neartotal absence of the higher registers. As usual, Stern simply failed to get appreciable resonance from his instrument and was often downright tinny. Ax dominated the middle and lower registers, edging out Laredo and Ma in the process, and a lack of a suitable complement in the upper range gave this recording a disturbing hollow quality. Even Sony's 20-bit "Super Bit-Mapping" recording techniques didn't seem to make a substantial difference...