BaL 30.03.19 - Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 57

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

09.30
Building a Library: Ivan Hewett picks a personal favourite from among the recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57.
Shostakovich hoped the clear, tunefully muscular style of his 1940 Piano Quintet would mark another step on the way to rehabilitation with the Soviet authorities. But Shostakovich himself couldn’t have predicted the enormous popular and critical success of the work. The bitterest and sweetest icing on the cake came the following year when the Quintet won the Stalin Prize (Category One).


Available versions:-

Victor Aller, Hollywood String Quartet
Piotr Anderszewski, Belcea Quartet
Apple Hill Chamber Players
Martha Argerich, Renaud Capucon, Alissa Margulis & Lyda Chen *
Martha Argerich, Joshua Bell, Henning Kraggerud, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky (DVD)
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Fitzwilliam Quartet
Edward Auer, Godfried Hoogeveen, Marcus Thompson, Christiaan Bor, Paul Rosenthal *
Artur Balsam, Budapest String Quartet
Beaux Arts Trio etc.
Clifford Benson, Alberni String Quartet
Ludmila Berlinskaya, New Russian Quartet
Boris Berman, Vermeer Quartet
Borodin Trio, Jerry Horner, Mimi Zweig
Yefim Bronfman, Juilliard String Quartet
Ian Brown, Schidlof Quartet
Ian Brown, Marcia Crayford, Elizabeth Layton, Roger Chase, Christopher van Kampen *
Christian Blackshaw, Brodsky Quartet *
Yefim Bronfman, Juillard String Quartet *
Bruno Canino, Amati Quartett
Martin Cousin, Villiers String Quartet
DSCH-Shostakovich Ensemble
Itamar Golan, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin
Alexey Goribol, Alexey Massarsky, Andrey Dogadin, Lidiya Kovalenko, Ilya Ioff
Marc-André Hamelin, Takács Quartet
Martin Helmchen, Pieter Schoeman, Kristine Blaumane, Alexander Zemtsov, Vesselin Gellev
Yakov Kasman, Talich Quartet
Matthias Kirschnereit, Szymanowski Quartet
Ewa Kupiec, Petersen Quartet
Elisabeth Leonskaja, Artemis Quartet
Michael Lifits, Szymanowski Quartet *
Anna Malikova, Belenus Quartet *
Nash Ensemble *
Constantine Orbelian, Moscow String Quartet
Pihtipudas Kvintetti
Quintetto Chigiano
Martin Roscoe, Sorrel Quartet *
St. Petersburg Chamber Soloists
Schubertiaden Schnackenburg Soloists
Dmitri Shostakovich, Beethoven Quartet
Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmiyri Tziganov, Vasily Shirinsky, Vadim Borisovsky, Sergei Shirinsky
Dmitri Shostakovich, Rostislav Dubinsky, Nina Barshai, Rudolf Barshai, Valentin Berlinsky
Francisca Skoogh, Z Quartet
Tchaikovsky Trio, Yoshiko Arai, Vladimir Mendelssohn
Anatol Ugorski, Delian Quartet
Igor Uryash, St Petersburg String Quartet
Alexei Volodin, Borodin Quartet
Roger Woodward, Alexander String Quartet *


* = download only

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- many thanks once again, Alpie.

A fovourite piece of Shostakovich for me - but I have only the Richter/Borodin 4tet disc (which should never be allowed out of the catalogue), so I'll be listening with a shopper's ear to this BaL.

[LeMartinPecheur]

...I have only the Richter/Borodin 4tet disc (which should never be allowed out of the catalogue)...

I'm amazed and appalled to see it has been let out of the catalogue!

I have 3 versions, all nla - Yedlina + Borodins on an old HMV Melodiya LP, fhg's Richter + Borodins, and Stott + London Musici 4tet.

[richardfinegold]

regarding the blather in the prom blurb that Alpie reproduces:

I am not in a position to check this at the moment, but I thought Shosty had written the Quintet in the 1930s, that he originally conceived it as a String Quartet but then changed it to a Piano Quintet to add a part for himself when he found out that the performing ensemble (The Beethoven Quartet?) was going to be allowed to travel outside the USSR boundaries to perform the new work, and that he was on tour in Turkey or someplace when the infamous Stalin attack on him and his Opera Lady MacBeth of the Mtinsk District in Pravda, Muddle Instead of Music , was published. I thought that he hurried back to the USR expecting to be sent to the Gulag. If this is true then the blurb about "hoping to rehabilitate himself" with the Quintet would be nonsense. Am I mistaken?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

regarding the blather in the prom blurb that Alpie reproduces:

I am not in a position to check this at the moment, but I thought Shosty had written the Quintet in the 1930s, that he originally conceived it as a String Quartet but then changed it to a Piano Quintet to add a part for himself when he found out that the performing ensemble (The Beethoven Quartet?) was going to be allowed to travel outside the USSR boundaries to perform the new work, and that he was on tour in Turkey or someplace when the infamous Stalin attack on him and his Opera Lady MacBeth of the Mtinsk District in Pravda, Muddle Instead of Music , was published. I thought that he hurried back to the USR expecting to be sent to the Gulag. If this is true then the blurb about "hoping to rehabilitate himself" with the Quintet would be nonsense. Am I mistaken?

I think you must be, rfg. According to Wiki, the Pno5tet was begun in the Summer of 1940, and completed in September of that year, with a premiere in November. Whilst the USSR wasn't then at War, opportunities to travel in Europe would have been somewhat limited - and USA/USSR cultural exchanges before the War, unless I'm mistaken, just didn't happen? The only chamber works DSCH wrote before the War were the First S4tet (1938); the 'cello Sonata (1934); and the first Piano Trio (1923 - when he was 16).

[Padraig]

I understood that The Beethoven Quartet were so impressed by Shostakovich's String Quartet No 1, 1938, that they commissioned a piece. The Quintet was duly completed in September 1940 and was premiered later that year with Shostakovich himself at the piano.

I have Elisabeth Leonskaja and the Borodin Quartet, 1996, which influenced me to suggest the work for our local Music Society around that time. Though I don't see it listed for consideration it was received with wonderment by our audience. Anya Alexeyev and The Emperor Quartet graced the stage for what was in 1998, a first for Derry, and I'm proud to be responsible.

[BBMmk2]

One of my favourites. I have Ashkenazy, Firzwilliam and Martha Argerich and friends, and Marc Andre Hamlin and The Takacs.Brilliant work.

[Edgy 2]

Contender for the greatest piano Quintet ever written ?

I have Matthias Kirschnereit Szymanowski Quartet,Richter Borodin Quartet and Melos Ensemble (eloquence) which isn’t listed,maybe nla or banned because of the cover picture

[Bryn]

Contender for the greatest piano Quintet ever written ?

I have Matthias Kirschnereit Szymanowski Quartet,Richter Borodin Quartet and Melos Ensemble (eloquence) which isn’t listed,maybe nla or banned because of the cover picture

The Melos Ensemble is available from QOBUZ at a fairly sensible price (search there for "Shostakovich Melos" or go to https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/sh.../0002894786947

That cover illustration does not look like a "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" to me.

[verismissimo]

I've only ever owned another recording (on LP) by the Borodins - this one with Lyubov Yedlina. It was recorded by Melodiya in 1968 and published by EMI in 1975.

Haven't listened to it in years, partly doubtless because it's organised to be split over 2 sides, framed by Stravinsky Octet and 3 Pieces for Quartet. Will listen again.

[Pulcinella]

Contender for the greatest piano Quintet ever written ?

I know that teamsaint thinks highly of the Schnittke piano quintet, and it's available in a Naxos coupling with the DSCH that gets a very good mention in the Penguin Guide.
I have the Schnittke in a different (all-Schnittke) Naxos coupling.

In terms of the DSCH, I too have the Richter/Borodin, as well as Ashkenazy/Fitzwilliam, Borodin Trio with Zweig and Horner, and the Nash Ensemble.
Should be another good BaL.

PS: Looks like the Richter/Borodin is still available as a single Melodiya CD:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Quintet-String-Quartet-Pieces/dp/B000024DPX/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1553247087&sr=1-4&keywords=borodin+shostakovich+quintet

[LMcD]

Contender for the greatest piano Quintet ever written ?

I have Matthias Kirschnereit Szymanowski Quartet,Richter Borodin Quartet and Melos Ensemble (eloquence) which isn’t listed,maybe nla or banned because of the cover picture

Certainly a contender, but on Wednesday I attended a lunchtime concert which reminded me once again of all the good things about Schumann's Piano Quintet. Also worthy of mention are K452 and the Elgar, which we saw performed by Ian Brown and the now-disbanded(?) Sorrell Quartet some years ago.

[teamsaint]

I know that teamsaint thinks highly of the Schnittke piano quintet, and it's available in a Naxos coupling with the DSCH that gets a very good mention in the Penguin Guide.
I have the Schnittke in a different (all-Schnittke) Naxos coupling.

In terms of the DSCH, I too have the Richter/Borodin, as well as Ashkenazy/Fitzwilliam, Borodin Trio with Zweig and Horner, and the Nash Ensemble.
Should be another good BaL.

PS: Looks like the Richter/Borodin is still available as a single Melodiya CD:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovic...kovich+quintet

review of the DSCH/ Schnittke Naxos disc here

I could certainly do with another recording of each work, so this looks a good one to pick up as prep for the BaL.......

[CallMePaul]

I have heard this performed live on several occasions, including by David Fanning with both the Lindsays and the Quatuor Danel. However, I do not have a recording of the piece so will listen with interest. For me at least, couplings will matter as I would prefer another Soviet era quintet rather than one Shostakovich quartet (I already have Danels, Shostakovich Quartet and most of the Fitzwilliam cycle). At one time couplings were mentioned when a disc was recommended but this has not been the case for some years.

[Barbirollians]

I have heard this performed live on several occasions, including by David Fanning with both the Lindsays and the Quatuor Danel. However, I do not have a recording of the piece so will listen with interest. For me at least, couplings will matter as I would prefer another Soviet era quintet rather than one Shostakovich quartet (I already have Danels, Shostakovich Quartet and most of the Fitzwilliam cycle). At one time couplings were mentioned when a disc was recommended but this has not been the case for some years.

Richter/Borodin - deleted ! What an outrage !!!