I see that this world premiere recording has recently been released. Certainly the Hiller excerpts are all one could wish for, but it seems a shame about the couplings which, I'm sure, will once again create yet more unnecessary duplications of standard repertoire for those of us, myself included, who want just the Hiller! Even a duplication of Hiller's 1st serenade for piano trio, Op64, (which seems to be still available on a Thorophon CD with works by Bruch & Widor), would have been far more appropriate, IMHO! Also the total playing time for the complete CD of just under 58 minutes is rather shameful, unfortunately. However, in spite of the above, this is a must-buy for me....https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/works-for-piano-trio/hnum/7981107..//
It's also available over here:
https://www.mdt.co.uk/beethoven-hiller-schubert-rautio-piano-trio-resonus-classics.html (https://www.mdt.co.uk/beethoven-hiller-schubert-rautio-piano-trio-resonus-classics.html)
Or you could save money and avoid needles duplication by downloading the lossless tracks (flac etc.) of just the Hiller Trio, as I have done. If you do so from Qobuz (https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/beethoven-hiller-schubert-works-for-piano-trio-rautio-piano-trio/5060262791097), for example, you still get the booklet.
I suspect that the trio had the Ghost and the two Schuberts (one and a quarter to be precise) already in the repertoire. These are among the most conventional pieces that an ensemble "must" have in the repertoire. So it saved time and effort (and hopefully money) to make this coupling.
And on the other hand: Most people do not have multiple recordings even of conventional repertoire pieces. And maybe this way some get to know Hiller who would never even consider a disc with all Hiller (or e.g. Hiller and Raff: the formal outline of the Serenade is similar to some things Raff did). Though the question is: How does Hiller fare alongside some undisputed masterpieces of the genre?
And most people don't have the Rautio, either, so many would count that as an overall plus too.
"Rautio Piano Trio" refers to the performers, not a piece by a composer called Rautio. Please correct me if I am wrong. It is an area of Finland I believe.
ah, my mistake. There was a composer Karl Rautio but I was thinking of Väinö Raitio whose output of chamber music seems not to have included a piano trio (there is eg a CD out with Melartin's string trio, Leiviska's piano trio and Raitio's violin/piano pieces op.18 so that absence is not the problem so much as my misremembering the name...)