Customer Reviews

Bloch: Piano Quintets

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4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

There have been only a few recordings of Bloch's chamber music that have stayed in the catalog for any length of time. This one should persevere for years. I sat down intending only to listen to the first Piano Quintet from 1923 but ended up staying through the 1957 Second Quintet. The music is just that compulsively listenable. I have never understood why Bloch's music does not figure in more recital programs and recordings; his chamber music is particularly appealing. His music has a characteristic sound world, much as Bela Bartok's does. As Bloch grew older, his music became somewhat more spare and acerbic but, like Frank Martin's music, it remains uniquely his.

The performances by Piers Lane with the Goldner String Quartet are wonderful, the recording is rich and full, and the notes are a model of their kind.

I can only compare the PQ 1, since that is the only one where I have another recording, and I am glad I do. That recording by Karp/Pro Arte (with the 5th String Quartet) is far better. If you like Bloch for his intensity (either loud or soft), then you really should listen to the Karp/Pro Arte recording.

The other works here are well played and enjoyable. Nice, even beautiful smoothness and color. I really enjoy and appreciate the short SQ pieces and they seem to suit the style of performance well.

But for one of the 3 most intense pieces of classical music I have ever heard (LVB 5th Sy and Stravinsky Rite of Spring), you gotta go for broke and give it all you've got, and these guys don't, to my hearing.