Customer Reviews

Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Min / Complete String Quartets (1, 2, 3)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One could say that this DG 2-CD set is unmissable even before the first track begins. At two-for-one price we get to hear the great Leon Fleisher, miraculously recovered from his decades-long muscle affliciton (thanks to neurology and botox) and now capable of performing Brhams's most difficult works. Fleisher is, along with Rudolf Serkin, the greatest Brahms player among Americans. Here he doesn't disappoint, in a reading of the Piano Quintet that's incredibly moving, full of mastery in every phrase.

At first I was worried that he wouldn't be a match for the strainless stel Emersons, but they adapt their style to his. In every way they are second to Fleisher's lead, and the microphone placement puts his every note front and center. Often that's a drawback, but here it's what I wanted to hear. The interpretation is more relaxed than the great one from Pollini and the Quartetto Italiano and more emotionally free than Gilels with the Amadeus Qt. (NOt to mention that the Emersons show more technical ability and polish than either ensemble.) Fleisher's touch isn't as rapid and scintillating as it was in youth, but he never drags or blurs the notes. He makes each movement one great expanse of song, and in my experience there has never been a performance to equal his. rahms's broad sweeps of lyric beauty simply take off.

Oh yes, and there are three string quartets in addition. I have never warmed to Brahms's quartet writing, much as I love his other chamber music. The Emersons play with their usual amazing unanimity, and they capture Brahms's full-scale romanticism without reserve. This isn't one of their attempts to redo a classic composer in modern style. As in the Quntet, DG's sonics are wonderful, giving us the best string sonority I've heard in a long time. I'll leave it to other reviewers to detail the individual performances here. For me, the glory of this set will always be Fleisher and his amazing autumnal rebirth.

I never thought I would apply this adjective to a classical recording, but somehow it perfectly describes the cultured detachment of these performances, especially the Op 51, No. 1 C Minor Quartet. There is not a note out of place, the phrasing is precise and musicianly, the execution of its architecture is flawless, but... the sum of the parts is bloodless.

It's not the recording I would have expected given their full blooded Beethoven cycle. In fact, the Brahms production has more in common with their Mendelssohn cycle than the Beethoven. Their Mendelssohn too, was beautiful, but leaning toward the beauty of a still life. There are other performances, in both the Mendelssohn and the Brahms, that better capture the pathos of the music. Compare Emerson's performance of the C Minor Quartet with that of the Alban Berg Quartet, a superior performance. What the Berg may lack in refinement and polish, only in comparison to the Emerson Quartet, they more than make up for in sheer vitality.

And that's the nub of it. The desire, impetuosity, fear, triumph and pathos is missing -- in short, youthfulness. I just read a review, in the New York Review of Books, of some new translations of Casanova's autobiography and one of his statements reminds me of the Emerson. Casanova wrote that throughout his thirties, his vigor faded. I can't help wondering if the same thing hasn't happened to the Emerson quartet. They are more polished than ever, but the vigor has faded. The sexual rush of the great music is missing.

Leon Fleisher and the Emerson Quartet had a chance to make a fabulous digital recording of the Brahms F minor Piano Quintet--but they blew it. Instead we get an okay performance that features an overly thoughtful interpretation and frustratingly slow tempos in some spots. This is not an autumnal work, and the attempt by the players to do it that way doesn't work for me. I am not a total fan of the Emerson quartet--I personally prefer the more urgent and less lyrical sound of the Juilliard or Tokyo Quartets. However there is some exceptional playing in the 3 Brahms Quartets. Given the low price and the scarcity of recordings of the Brahms Quartets, I would recommend this 2-disc set.

Johannes Brahms did not tackle the form of the symphony before he had mastered such chamber music forms as the string quartet, piano trio and piano quintet, perhaps as a kind of "rehearsal" for the larger (though not necessarily less demanding) symphonic form. He did not publish any string quartets until he had written 20 of them - which he did not publish! Thus, the three string quartets he finally chose to publish are true masterpieces of the genre, thought out and honed to perfection to the minutest detail.

This is not to say that Brahms' string quartets (nor any of his other chamber music) are dry academic exercises, in which Brahms set himself a problem and found a way to solve it. Far from it; they are passionate and profound works, and should be heard by all chamber music lovers.

Yet it seems that Brahms' quartets are not held in so great an esteem as they should be, for example, when compared to Beethoven's or Schubert's quartets. In this they resemble the string quartets of Brahms' friend, Robert Schumann, whose quartets are also not so very well known. A typical reaction seems to be that by Charles T. Downey of the Ionarts Web page, who, writing in a review of this recording by the Emerson Quartet, regards Brahms' string quartets as "not essential works even for fans of Brahms' chamber music." Although evaluations of music are to a very large extent a matter of personal taste, that is to me quite an astonishing statement. Although Downey's review of the recording is generally appreciative, he has this reservation about the quartets. Not so with the Amazon reviewers here...).

The more I listen to these wonderful and many-sided works, the more I seem to get out of them. This is perhaps because they reveal their melodic content not in a series of easily hummable tunes, but gradually, through the economy of their execution and intensity of their feeling. To me, they are uniquely powerful and successful works, owing perhaps to the fact that Brahms took so great pains in "preparing the way" before actually composing them.

To this, add the warm and sonorous recording. The Emersons really shine in these works, most of all in the Piano Quintet, of which the ensemble, together with pianist Leon Fleischer, gives an altogether sublime performance. The quality of the recorded sound is excellent, as in most other recordings by the Emersons I have heard.

I loved all of Fleisher's recordings with George Szell in the 50's and early 60's before he became afflicted with dystonia. In particular, the Beethoven concertos (still the best stereo cycle of those works), the Grieg/Schumann concertos (still at or near the top), and the Brahms concertos (along with Gilels, the best pairing of those). Fleisher & Szell were quite a dynamic duo. Now over 40 years later comes the best stereo recording I've heard of the piano quintet (yes, I like it better than Pollini/Quartetto Italiano). As for the quartets, there are many fine recordings. I especially like the Verdi Quartett's Op. 51 set. The Alban Berg has a fine set of all three on 2 discs (but inexplicably no "filler"). But, this set by the Emerson's is as good as any I've heard, and probably better. When you add it all up, it's a no-brainer as to which set to get. Hopefully, this is the first of many collaborations between Fleisher and the Emerson Quartet (while he can still play at this level).

The quartets are played at the height of virtuosity. However, like Heifetz, the perfection can leave one a bit chilly. The passion tends to be lost in the execution. Tempos are just too fast. That being said, the virtuosity is indeed remarkable.

The performances on this disc are not what I have a problem with. I actually would have given this disc at least 4 stars out of 5 if it weren't for the terrible job the audio engineer did when putting the recording together. The sound of the instruments aren't bad, but the instrument placing is some of the worst I have EVER heard. When one puts on a good pair of headphones your attention is directed to the first violinist on steroids seated behind your left shoulder. Then you notice that the cello and viola appear to be seated on top of each other. Lastly the second violinist often gets confused for the first violinist because he is placed behind the actual first violinist. It's a real tragedy that the Emerson could not have been presented in a more listenable manner. The performances that could have been memorable were made almost un-listenable by the terrible balance. When it comes time for Emerson to make their next recording they need to make sure that they never hire the same audio engineer.

I have long been a fan of Murray Perahia's great recording of the Brahms Piano Quartet with the Amadeus String Quartet, but now, Deutsche Grammophon has released what ought to be regarded as the definitive recording of this work. The great American pianist Leon Fleischer - who has thankfully recovered the use of his right hand due to some rather intriguing, innovative treatment - leads the Emerson String Quartet in a stunning, quite rhapsodic performance of one of the great works in the Piano Quintet repertoire, and indeed, of chamber music itself. I should add too that "lead" is the correct verb to describe this admirable performance by all five musicians in this truly incandescent recording, which is replete with ample distinguished, lyrical playing from cellist David Finckel and his Emerson String Quartet colleagues (Their playing is truly distinguished, at a technical and interpretative level which is unquestionably at a higher level than the Amadeus String Quartet's.). As for the three Brahms String Quartets, these are inspiring, vibrant performances in their own right, with ample exqusite lyrical playing from all four string players. Recorded over the course of several years in the venerable American Academy of Arts and Letters auditorium in Washington Heights, Manhattan (New York, NY) Deutsche Grammophon's sound engineers have done an exemplary job in capturing with exqusite detail ever note played by these five superb musicians, in an acoustical setting that should be regarded as quite ambiently warm. Needless to say this two-CD set is one of the finest recordings released by both pianist Leon Fleischer and the Emerson String Quartet. Devout fans of these musicians, Johannes Brahms' chamber music, and of great classical chamber music in general, will want to add this fine recording to their collections.

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Brahms's string quartets have never really been "popular."
Possibly this ambivalence is due to his turning away from Beethoven and towards Schönberg.
What has not been widely recognized is the influence of Schubert upon Brahms's string quartet technique--(Brahms had owned the original MS of Schubert's c-minor Quartet D.703, and edited it for its first publication).

Long preferred is the Amadeus's reading Brahms: The String Quartets/Dvorak: Quartet, Op. 96 for its Schönbergian razor-sharpness.

For a really distinctive realization of Brahms' Piano Quintet, hear Glenn Gould's Glenn Gould Edition: Brahms.
Gould's vision of the inner two movements is absolutely astounding, while taking the whole work as a gestalt: that is Art.
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I bought this 2-CD set. Like many people, I seldom play the actual cds any more, but rip them to my media player. The cover jpg and album info is downloaded. I couldn't figure out why the 2nd CD didn't copy into my music library, and then into my Archos. I kept putting in both CDs to check them, and the media track information read the same as the two Op. 51 quartets from CD 1. So my computer didn't rip CD 2 cause it thought it had it already. I manually renamed the tracks for CD 2, then the computer ripped the mp3, and I was able to sync to the Archos. It's one of those What the ...??? that takes a half hour to figure out cause you think YOU are wrong. ARGHHHH! After I entered the track info for the 2nd cd, ripped the mp3s, and synced to the Archos, the process didn't work. The two CDs were merged into one unwieldy monster mash album. I removed from computer and the Archos. Phooey. Maybe there's another way to separate the two cds data so they separate, but I don't know how to do it.