Finghin Collins and Trio in Mozart

There are a few great classics of recorded music: Kreisler playing Kreisler, the Busch Quartet playing the Beethoven string quartets, Maria Callas singing Tosca, Otto Klemperer conducting Beethoven's Eroica symphony, Clara Haskil playing Mozart .... and several others. Then there are the top "brand names" who became top partly from talent, partly from adroit PR and slick marketing and sales promotion. Much like the choice of your breakfast cereal or toothpaste: major brand name, or little-known store name at half the price. After around 70 years of buying music recordings, I had never heard the name of the Irish pianist Finghin Collins. And here he was playing with an assembled trio of violin, viola and cello in two Mozart piano quartets (K478 and K493). Apparently Collins won 1st prize at the 1999 Clara Haskil contest, and I can quite believe it. His playing in Mozart has the elegant simplicity that Haskil brought to this music. In music such as this, one can often forget big brand names and go for real quality. Nicely recorded in an Irish church, to boot. Sometimes musicians of whom you have never heard, can turn out performances that are really top class. Such is the case here.