This is one of the most attractive chamber music recordings to come my way recently and I have no reservations in recommending it wholeheartedly. The recording is well produced, with excellent notes by William Badgett, and the sound quality is extremely good. Beyond that however, the programme itself is so admirable.

The Kandinsky Trio are currently celbrating their seventeenth season and continually expanding their repertoire. This recording includes an early (1892) Trio by Rachmaninov, a single movement of passionate breadth and youthful vigor, and an attractive though not particularly strong piece by Chien-Tai Chen which donates its title to the whole disc. There are three miniatures by Frank Bridge, beautiful little pieces which begin with an inventive view of the Minuet and the recently discovered Four Combinations for Three Instruments by Henry Cowell which inevitably explores his much loved cluster sounds.

The piece called Circulo, the third and last Piano Trio written by Joaquin Turina, expresses in its three movements the cycle of 'sunrise,' 'midday' and 'twilight,' music of exquisite quality given an affectionate performance. And the recital ends in ebullient fashion with the Kandinsky Trio's own Gitane a Trois, an exciting amalgam of gypsy music using the full and colorful resources of the piano trio to fine effect.