BaL 12.03.22 - Schubert: String Quintet in C major (D. 956)

[BBMmk2]

I think the Orpheus Quartet, with Oliver Wispelwey, is very good indeed. I’ve heard it several times now.

[Bryn]

I think the Orpheus Quartet, with Oliver Wispelwey, is very good indeed. I’ve heard it several times now.

Pieter Wispelwey, surely?

[richardfinegold]

It is kind of unusual for me not to have multiple recordings of a well loved piece, but my first encounter with the Quintet was the Melos/Rostropovich and I just loved it so much and missed it so when my lps were destroyed that I was in ecstasies when it came out on CD.
The only other one that I added was Emerson/Rostropovich and that was because it was a “throw in” to a collection of Schubert Quartets by the Emersons. So perhaps a HIPP version is in order and I will check Qobuz

[Poppydhb]

Yes, I find BaL frustrating for all the reasons already mentioned - especially, for me, the rather fake-sounding chat between presenters. What would work best (OK, better) for me would be a) the full hour as suggested, b) some mention of key recordings no longer in print; it’s usually possible to source somehow, and c) two researchers/presenters working on the whole thing and I’d much rather hear two people arguing their positions and coming to a conclusion together than adding this pretend discussion afterwards. I’d settle for BaL replacing Record Review Extra, but at the end of the day, there’s so few of us interested who’s going to take any notice? Despite the wealth of insight good reviewers bring to the whole BaL process.

On the Schubert quintet itself, I found myself out of sympathy with the Ebene version. I haven’t heard all of the Tetzlaff version yet but that seems a bit more congenial to me. I’m truly lucky my main LP version is the Allegri/Welsh recording and I keep going back to that and the Hollywoods with much pleasure. I didn’t have a copy of the BBC Music Mag CD with the Vellingers, but I’ve ordered one from Discogs for a couple of quid. I have high hopes for that. I like the Pavel Haas version and that one with the double bass is worth an occasional listen. I was thinking a more subtle dose of string bass would work really well, but on investigating the string orchestra arrangement by Gidon Kremer onYoutube, that’s not it. I love the Mahler Death and the Maiden arrangement, and wish he’d done the quintet. Is there anything around like that? Haven’t found one yet.

[Wolfram]

On the Schubert quintet itself, I found myself out of sympathy with the Ebene version. I haven’t heard all of the Tetzlaff version yet but that seems a bit more congenial to me.

I was also unconvinced by the Ebene Quartet. On the basis of what I heard last week I invested in the version by Tetzlaff et al and was very glad that I did. I wasn't quite so convinced by Pregardien fils in Schwanengesang on the accompanying disc, but no complaints about the quintet.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was also unconvinced by the Ebene Quartet. On the basis of what I heard last week I invested in the version by Tetzlaff et al and was very glad that I did. I wasn't quite so convinced by Pregardien fils in Schwanengesang on the accompanying disc, but no complaints about the quintet.

I’ve lined up both for listening on the strength of this BAL, having until now never found a reading of the piece as convincing and pleasurable as the Stern/Casals et al. classic…

I’ve hitherto loved everything I’ve heard from the Ébène quartet and shall be particularly interested to hear it given the doubts expressed above.

[Barbirollians]

It was lovely to hear the Stern/Casals et al recording again. I had it on cassette and pretty much wore it out - pleased to get a second hand copy of the CD relatively cheaply last week.

I haven't listened to the Melos/Rostropovich for a long while - will do so again soon.

[kea]

The pseudo-Archibudelli recording was my only one for years, but I found the Festetics/W Kuijken better in every respect.

It's been a long time since I've heard the Festetics recording. My recollection was that it was very good, although a bit slow in the third and fourth movements. The quasi-Archibudelli recording has the additional issue of following an older, less accurate version of the score, even if I thought its first movement at least was preferable.

As for the final choice, I don't remember enjoying the Quatuor Ébène recording very much, even though I've only listened to it once. Having thought things over, the recording I would have recommended—which is, to my ears, somewhat similar to the Ébène recording but better in all respects—is the one by Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Amihai Grosz, Torleif Thedéen and Jens Peter Maintz, also coupled with one of the finest versions of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht available. (This coupling was first used by the Hollywood Quartet, which I neglected to mention and which is also an extremely good recording of both works if you're ok with mono.) Apart from tempo, which is something I always complain about, this recording has one of the best senses of ensemble interplay and genuine chamber music, comparable to the recording by Pamela Frank et al. (which I prefer) but more recommendable because the interpretation is much less extreme and the performances are technically superior. The most obvious point of commonality with the Quatuor Ébène is the superhumanly perfect intonation, but the Ébène seem to interpret a lot of things differently "just for the sake of it" as opposed to in service of a particular aesthetic ideal, which is perhaps one reason I found their performance less "natural".

This is all highly subjective, of course. I'll revisit the Festetics recording at some point. (I probably won't revisit Jaap Schröder's recording on Musica Omnia—the third period instruments version; the Kuijken Quartet w/Michel Boulanger unfortunately plays on modern instruments if I recall correctly—because I recall Schröder's intonation being... very bad.)