Belcea at Wigmore Hall

[Guest]

They sound more at home with Mozart.
Why oh why do people try to make Dvořák exciting? They tried too hard. The slow bits almost stopped, the fast bits were played so furiously that we lost the joy that is inherent in Dvořák's wonderful piano quintet.

C.W.

[french frank]

They sound more at home with Mozart.
Why oh why do people try to make Dvořák exciting? They tried too hard. The slow bits almost stopped, the fast bits were played so furiously that we lost the joy that is inherent in Dvořák's wonderful piano quintet.

C.W.

I didn't listen but had (have) it marked down as a programme to catch on the iPlayer. They certainly are good in Mozart and Schubert. I haven't heard them in the 19th-c. repertoire.

[jean]

They toured the complete Beethoven quartets last year:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?5268-Belcea-Quartet-Beethoven-30-4-12&highlight=belcea+quartet+beethoven

[gurnemanz]

We greatly enjoyed them in an interesting programme at the Wigmore last December: Haydn, Smetana + Shostakovich Piano Quintet with Katya Apekisheva.

[Richard Tarleton]

They sound more at home with Mozart.
Why oh why do people try to make Dvořák exciting? They tried too hard. The slow bits almost stopped, the fast bits were played so furiously that we lost the joy that is inherent in Dvořák's wonderful piano quintet.

C.W.

Loved the Schubert and Mozart, switched over after 1st movement of Dvorak....

[bluestateprommer]

Why oh why do people try to make Dvořák exciting?

Perhaps because Dvořák invites excitement by the sheer vigor and inventiveness of his writing?

I actually respectfully disagree, where there was only one moment in the slow movement of the Piano Quartet that all parties involved (and don't forget that there was a very fine pianist there as well, Till Fellner, so one has to blame him as well as the BQ for any faults in pacing) that threatened to be OTT fast, but they stopped in time (and together). I found nothing otherwise extreme in the BQ's and TF's performance, where I was given to expect something borderline bipolar based on comments here. It proved nothing of the sort, IMHO.

The Schubert trio and the Mozart quartet in the first half were also very nicely done. I would advise people to give it a listen for themselves, all the way through. You'll be rewarded with an encore, the slow movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, K. 414, the "piano quintet" version.

[aeolium]

bsp, I too was surprised by the reaction to the Dvorak performance. I heard the Belceas play the same programme live at Cheltenham the previous day and greatly enjoyed it (and I listened to the Wigmore broadcast).

Interestingly, in the Cheltenham performance, the members of the quartet were arranged in a semicircle of 1st violin, 2nd violin, cello, viola. I had been more used to seeing the formation of 1st, 2nd, viola, cello. I wondered whether the Belceas' chosen formation was partly to do with the prominence given to the cello in the Mozart piece or whether it is more common.