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Franz SCHUBERT (1787-1828)
Piano Trio No.1 in B flat, D898 (1827) [35:39]
Piano Trio No.2 in E flat, D929 (1827) [41:22]
Adagio in E flat, D897 ‘Notturno’ (1827) [13:01]
Piano Trio movement in B flat, D28 ‘Sonata’ [8:21]
Piano Quintet in A, D667 ‘Trout’ (1819-20?) [35:40]
Adagio and Rondo Concertante for piano, violin, viola and
cello in F, D487 (1816) [13:23]
Beaux Arts
Trio (Menahem Pressler (piano); Daniel Guilet (violin); Bernard
Greenhouse (cello)) (D28, 897, 898, 929)
Melos
Ensemble of London (Lamar Crowson (piano); Emanuel Hurwitz
(violin); Cecil Aronowitz (viola); Terence Weil (cello);
Adrian Beers (double-bass)) (D487, 667)
rec. Abbey Road Studio No.1, London, February 1966 (Beaux);
November (D667); December 1966 (D487) PHILIPS
ELOQUENCE 442 9375 [77:09 + 70:44]
There are two
ways of looking at this reissue: as a version of the Trout
Quintet, with recommendable add-ons, or as a way of acquiring
the Beaux Arts accounts of the Piano Trios with a decent
version of the Trout Quintet thrown in. The latter would
be my response but the cover illustration – what might be
described as tasteful fish-restaurant décor depicting three
swimming trout – suggests that the producers expect the former. The
Quintet is, of course, by far the best-known piece on this
set and most people will probably buy it for that, but potential
purchasers seeking the Trout should be assured that the trios
also offer music in Schubert’s most melodious manner.
For those merely
looking for a good version of the Trout Quintet at a reasonable
price I should mention here that Eloquence already have in
their catalogue what I regard as the best performance at
any price: Clifford Curzon and members of the Vienna Octet
on 467 417-2. This European-sourced Eloquence CD comes with
a very decent version of the Death and the Maiden Quartet
but, sadly, no notes: those with little knowledge of classical
music but with a desire to give it a try will listen and,
one hopes, like it but still not know why the piece is called
the Trout Quintet.
Curzon, sadly,
made far fewer recordings than an artist of his calibre deserved – perhaps
if he had sported a more exotic-sounding name he might have
been more widely recognised – but his Vienna chamber recordings
have rightly achieved classic status. The recording sounds
a little dry but is perfectly acceptable. Alternatively,
if you want a really fine performance in a more recent recording,
Robert Hugill, reviewing the Naxos 2-CD Introduction to the
Trout Quintet on this website in April 2003, recommended
the performance and recording on the parent recording (Jenö Jandó and
the Kodály Quartet on 8.550658, with the Adagio and Rondo
Concertante).
The recording
of the Piano Trios on the new Eloquence reissue also sounds
a little dry in the upper registers and tends to harden somewhat
if the volume is raised above normal listening levels, but
the ear very soon adjusts; a little dryness is far preferable
to added artificial resonance, and I am glad that the temptation
has been resisted. I do not remember the original LPs sounding
so dry, but memory plays tricks: in any case, our expectations
were rather lower forty years ago and the slight distortion
inherent in even the best cartridge tracking LP grooves tends
to add a halo of resonance. (I am standing by to be attacked
for heresy by vinyl addicts.) On the second CD the dryness
is far less noticeable: the disc opens with the quiet opening
of the Notturno and by the time that one reaches the louder
passages the ear has adjusted. Otherwise the tone is nicely
rounded and there is a credible sound-stage and perspective. As
usual, sadly, the better your equipment, the more likely
you are to notice the dryness, and vice-versa.
There are more
recent Beaux Arts recordings of these trios, with a different
violinist, Isidore Cohen in place of Daniel Guilet, and these
are available on a mid-price Philips Originals 2-CD set (475
7571); those who demand more recent recordings would be well
advised to turn to these versions but they should be warned
that they will be getting less music for their money, just
the four works for piano trio. The earlier Beaux Arts recordings
on this Eloquence set also continue to be available as a
Philips Duo, with the String Trios as fillers, so the choice
boils down to price (this Eloquence set is significantly
cheaper than the Duo) and preference of coupling (the String
Trios are excellently performed but many will prefer the
decent account of the Trout Quintet on Eloquence.) A well-known
CD Guide has confused the two Beaux Arts recordings so, at
the risk of repeating myself, the earlier set are on Duo
(438 700-2) and on this new Eloquence set, the later versions
less generously coupled on Philips Originals.
The obvious
rival to this new Eloquence set comes from two Naxos CDs
with the Stuttgart Piano Trio (D28 and D898 on 8.550131;
D897 and D929 on 8.550132). These are very competent performances,
well recorded, but here as always the best is the enemy of
the good. The Beaux Arts performances convey the sheer delight
of the music much better than the Naxos performers. This
is sunny music: though the two main trios and the Notturno
come from the last full year of Schubert’s life, one would
hardly sense that he knew his time was limited. I have recently
suggested that the case is otherwise with the String Quintet
where beauty is tinged with melancholy. If there is a slight
criticism of the Beaux Arts it is that they perhaps slightly
play down the darker elements in the E flat trio.
The Beaux Arts
Trio perform this music as if they had been playing it all
their lives and they allow themselves little liberties – a
touch of rubato here, even a little Viennese schmalz there – which
make that last iota of difference. The beautiful Notturno
receives a particularly loving performance. If it is the
trios that you want, this is the version to buy: it offers
more music than the Naxos CDs, which contain only the four
works, and it will probably sell for slightly less than even
the very reasonable price of two Naxos CDs. (There is a
newer Naxos version of D28 and D929, from the Kungsbacka
Trio on 8.555700, which I have not heard but which has been
well received in some quarters.)
The recording
of the Trout Quintet is almost exactly contemporary with
that of the trios. Though from a different stable – an EMI
recording never before issued on CD – much the same qualities
are in evidence as in the Philips items: the sound is again
slightly dry in the upper registers and the acoustic sounds
very similar. If anything, the overall sound here is slightly
rounder. Certainly it sounds more ingratiating than the
Eloquence/Curzon Trout where the violin tone is slightly
attenuated and the bass tends to sound rather undifferentiated,
though neither of these is enough to spoil enjoyment of the
excellent performance. The booklet implies that all the
recordings on the new CDs were made at EMI’s Abbey Road studios;
if this is so, it explains the apparent homogeneity of the
sound.
The members
of the Melos Ensemble of London on this recording (so named
to prevent confusion with the Melos Quartet) are a distinguished
group of players. Heard on its own this Melos version of
the Quintet is very satisfying – don’t be put off by the
fact that it has never appeared on CD: the competition among
versions of this work, already strong in 1966, is even stronger
now – but playing the two versions alongside each other reveals
the superiority of the Curzon version, which has more bounce
where it matters: the slightly faster tempo for the opening Allegro
vivace helps to achieve this, but it isn’t just a matter
of tempo. As in the piano trios, where the Beaux Arts score
over their very competent rivals on Naxos, the Viennese team
are freer, more willing to experiment, more at home in the
music, and the overall effect is that extra degree more enjoyable. It’s
rather like hearing an excellent performance of a Strauss
waltz and then hearing a Vienna Phil performance which tops
it. (The analogy is not far-fetched: Willi Boskowsky, the
long-time leader of the Vienna Phil and maestro of the New
Year’s Concerts for so many years, was a member of the Vienna
Octet on the Curzon recording.)
Not that the
Melos version sounds at all rigid: Lamar Crowson’s pianism
is a special delight; the interplay between him and the violinist
Emanuel Hurwitz at the opening of the Andante is particularly
worthy of mention. The Scherzo, too, goes with a
swing and the interplay of instruments in the Theme and Variations
is also well handled.
The Adagio
and Rondo is well worth having and the performance of it
is very good, but it hardly weighs in the final balance,
though the Rondo section makes an attractive end to the second
CD.
None of the
minor reservations that I have raised should be sufficient
to put anyone off the purchase of this Eloquence set: I could
be perfectly happy to have this in my collection, even to
have this as my only version of the Trout Quintet: it’s a
better proposition than the first LP of the Trout which I
owned. I wouldn’t even challenge the claim on the Eloquence
web-page that it is “simply gorgeous”. But if you bought
this set plus the Curzon Trout Quintet, you would
have some really first-rate performances which would probably
encourage further exploration of Schubert’s chamber repertoire – the
Naxos series of recordings of all the string quartets, for
example – for about the cost of one full-price CD.
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