Customer Reviews

Ludwig Thuille: Piano Quintets

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

 

 

I caught this on XM Radio this afternoon and could not leave my car until the entire piece had been played. Why haven't we heard of this ultra-romantic composer. The second movement alone has to rank among the most beautiful pieces ever written. There is such power, beauty and harmonic genius in this piece! It has been a long time since I've discovered a new piece that has captivated me as this one. I would recommend it to anyone who loves Brahms's piano quartets. You will surprised and delighted!

I bought these piano quintets from the initial positive review of them by Enriquez. I would say that I am and still am pleasantly surprised at these enjoyable gems composed by Thuille. Thuille has a Brahmsian spirit in reference to these works and it manifests itself in his total competence of the form. He carefully crafts his themes and developments. There are no superfluous notes. Each movement logically follows its predecessor. What is shocking is that these works are not standing alongside the Piano Quintets of Brahms, Dvorak, Schubert and Schumann, because they are worthy.

I've owned several Thuille discs, including the piano quintets & the symphony/piano concerto; however, I cannot believe a 1* rating for this recording, esp. from a presumed professional musician who likely did not even listen to the disc (my guess just from perusing that review). Thus, I must rate this recording highly just to provide a more representative overall evaluation.

When I listen to classical musical recordings to provide an opinion (and I'm not a musical professional), I like to judge the music on the composer's skills (of course, some are better than others), the quality of the performance, and the sound reproduction. Thuille was (at least initially) a friend of Richard Strauss, who admired his composing skills; he writes in a late Romantic style, more Brahmsian that in the mode of the eastern Europeans; this music is dynamic and contains some lovely melodies, esp. in the slow movements. Triendl (on piano) & the Vogier Quartett perform with conviction and modulate this music wonderfully. Finally, CPO is one of my favorite labels and their skills at recording music are beyond question. All put together, I would give this performance and disc at least a 4* rating (upped to 5* as mentioned above) - the quality of the music writing may be a notch below the 'greats' of the late 19th century, but some might even dispute that statement. This is a disc at least worth sampling, then read a little about the composer, and finally make a decision.

I'm a fan of late 19th century/early twentieth chamber music but had never heard these pieces before and never even heard of Thuille until his name cropped up in some book I was reading about Vienna in this period. Curious, I sampled the quintets and was blown away--I had to order them instantly. The music has that quality of ineffable rightness of music that you seem to have always known, unconsciously perhaps, or in your dreams. The quintets are passionate, bold, melodic, sweeping, and quite simply gorgeous. I listen to them over and over when I play the CD and they conjure images of faces in fin-de-siècle Vienna and a world that has utterly disappeared. I wish I had discovered Thuille earlier, wish that WQXR in New York (which I grew up with) or WKAR in East Lansing (which I listen to now) had played him.

People who enjoy listening to the Thuille piano quintets have probably never had to learn and rehearse them. This music is "cute" to listen to once or twice, but extremely trite and boring to learn. I've been a performing pianist for 50 years, and I can't bear to play these pieces. They are just difficult enough that they do require some practicing, and not interesting enough to make the practice and rehearsals enjoyable. All of the chamber music groups that I've performed with have the same opinion. Sorry. Go for Dohnanyi or Dvorak if what you want is big, romantic, and interesting chamber music that includes piano.