Schubert Piano Quintet The Trout Melos

The Piano Quintet in A minor is "grand" in more ways than one. It lasts more than 37 minutes. Each movement possesses its own fascination. The first offers heaving, swelling romantic music and engages all the instruments in daunting fashion. The second is a haunting, relentless scherzo that starts off with a lighter sound to build suspense. The slow third, major key movement starts off in rather saccharine style but turns persuasive in its own way.

The playing is strongly Romantic in character, emphasizing the violent contrasts and almost painful expressivity of the score; the ensemble can deliver feathery, near-inaudible pianissimos and powerful fortissimos with equal presence. Intonation is more or less flawless, and ensemble work is superb with all five parts often being equally audible with no loss of coordination. On each repeated listen I find new details springing out of the texture. There are occasional miscalculations—the cello pizzicati at the start of the adagio are a bit too prominent, though the reverberant acoustic (recorded in a church) could also be partly to blame—but for the most part everything is well judged.

Listeners who think they know Schubert's popular Quartettsatz in C minor and String Quintet in C major should try this 2008 recording of those works by the Artemis Quartet. The driving Quartettsatz beginning the disc is justly famous for inaugurating Schubert's maturity as a chamber music composer, but the tender Andante following it here is a rarely recorded fragment that would have furnished the Quartettsatz with a slow movement had Schubert completed the movement.

Composed during the final weeks of Schubert's life, the Quintet in C major for two violins, viola and two cellos ranks among his greatest accomplishments. Schubert's decision to use a second cello (rather than the second viola as in Mozart's quintets) adds to the overall richness of the piece and gives it a darker, more melancholy timbre. In its day, Schubert's Quintet was truly a revolutionary work. It is truly symphonic in scope, with 'orchestration' that mimics motifs characteristics of writing for winds and brass. This new recording from the Arcanto Quartet and cellist Olivier Marron (2004 first prize winner at the international Johann Sebastian Bach competition in Leipzig, Germany) illuminates the colors and decodes the complexities of this timeless masterpiece.

Among the genre of Strings Quartets, there's no other that reveals the quintessence of the post-romantic atmosphere like this Op. This is without any doubt one of the last masterpieces of Schubert. Written in 1828, it epitomizes and depicts the slight barrier between dream and reality, creating an illusionist atmosphere that leaves behind itself any the previous attempt. It's such its kaleidoscopic conjunction of unsaid feelings and thoughts that may be regarded like a musical canvas which transcends by far the limits of its historical moment.

The great Italian legend of the piano Maurizio Pollini sadly passed-away earlier this year, on 23rdMarch 2024. This album recorded together with his son Daniele, is dedicated to three different aspects of Schubert's piano oeuvre covering: the sonatas, the collections of short pieces, and music for four hands. The first time that both musicians performed a piano work for four hands: Schubert's great F minor Fantasy. The release is accompanied by a 16-page booklet with an essay by Maurizio Pollini's long-time companion Paolo Petazzi.

Is there a better trio than the Florestan playing today? All three members are consummate artists, outstanding instrumentalists, and ensemble players to the manner born, but it’s the playing of pianist Susan Tomes that carries these performances to their greatest heights. Since the ensemble is perfectly judged by all concerned, it may seem unjust to single out the playing of one member for special comment, but such is the extreme sophistication, the extraordinary subtlety and the expressive range of this artist that I can see no alternative. The tonal control, the exquisite shaping of phrases, the rhythmical suppleness and structural backbone are of an order seldom encountered in the playing even of many famous soloists. But what renders her playing here still more remarkable is the exemplary precision with which it’s matched to the different sonorities and qualities of attack, so-called, of the string players. And what players they are. For all of the above this is not a pianist-dominated performance, except insofar as Schubert wrote the piece that way.

This new double-album by pianist Lars Vogt, violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff includes some of Franz Schubert’s (1797–1828) greatest works of chamber music, including his Piano Trios and the Arpeggione Sonata, in breath-taking interpretations. Franz Schubert wrote his two numbered Piano Trios, as well as the Notturno for piano trio, during the very last months in his life, in 1827 and 1828. Like Beethoven, Schubert’s final works in chamber music are masterpieces of great emotional depth. The famous Arpeggione Sonata (1824) and Rondo for violin and piano (1826) were written slightly earlier, but can also be counted among Schubert’s late works.