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| Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Quartets / Ax, Stern, Laredo, Ma | |||||
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Release Date: 06/14/1994 Label: Sony Catalog #: 53339 Spars Code: DDD Composer: Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven Performer: Isaac Stern, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax
Number of Discs: 1 |
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| Notes & Reviews | Back to Top | ||||
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Sixteen recordings of Beethoven's Op. 16 in its original Mozart-inspired quintet version for piano and wind against only two for the piano quartet arrangement in which it rapidly re-emerged—that's the current Classical Catalogue listing. But this 1992 performance of the quartet from Isaac Stern and his eminent younger colleagues makes it hard to believe that it was conceived for any other combination than theirs—and what higher praise than that? The Andante cantabile, with its delicately embellished melodic strands, surely gains in expressive eloquence from the more personal inflexions of caressing strings. And with their bold dynamic contrasts and piquant accentuation, what drama all four players draw from the opening movement. As a brilliant young pianist himself, Beethoven entrusted the pianist with a load of responsibility, at once arrestingly and effortlessly discharged here by Emanuel Ax. Listening late at night with headphones, I at first thought balance occasionally went against the strings. But with the more spacious acoustic of normal twin-speakers I revised my opinion the next day.
As for Schumann's Piano Quartet, no longer is it dwarfed in popularity by its immediate predecessor in the same key, the Piano Quintet: already it boasts nine recordings as against the Quintet's 14. This one will surely win it a host of new friends—and not only for the mercurial lightness and grace of the Mendelssohnian sprites in the Scherzo and the glowing but essentially unsentimentalized intimacy of the Andante cantabile (as dedicated a love-song as Schumann ever wrote). The performers' impulse in the two flanking movements is unflagging and I've rarely heard a more exhilarating response to Schumann's new-found contrapuntal mastery than in this finale. The overall impression is of spontaneous enjoyment—a group of friends making music together for their own delight rather than as just another professional engagement. The recording is as vibrant as the playing. -- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [10/1994] |
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| Works on This Recording | Back to Top | ||||
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| 1. |
Quartet for Piano and Strings in E flat major, Op. 47 by Robert Schumann | ||||
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Performer:
Isaac Stern (Violin),
Jaime Laredo (Violin),
Yo-Yo Ma (Cello),
Emanuel Ax (Piano) Period: Romantic Written: 1842; Germany |
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Date of Recording: 03/1992 Venue: Manhattan Center Studios, New York City Length: 27 Minutes 12 Secs. |
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| 2. |
Quartet for Piano and Strings in E flat major, Op. 16 by Ludwig van Beethoven | ||||
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Performer:
Yo-Yo Ma (Cello),
Emanuel Ax (Piano),
Jaime Laredo (Violin),
Isaac Stern (Violin) Period: Classical Written: 1796; Vienna, Austria |
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Date of Recording: 03/1992 Venue: Manhattan Center Studios, New York City Length: 26 Minutes 12 Secs. |
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