SCHUBERT:STRING QUARTET OP.163:PIETER WISPELWEY(vc)/ORPHEUS QUARTET

The only complaint about this reissue recording is that there's too little of it; at 52 minutes, it easily had room for one of Schubert's single-movement chamber works. This is a superb reading of Schubert's String Quintet in C major, Op. 163 -- on the reserved side, but serving a corrective function for just that reason. This quintet, one of the last works Schubert wrote and not discovered until long after his death, often takes on a sound derived from later perceptions of what Viennese music is supposed to be like. The glorious tunes that serve as second subjects of both of the outer movements tend to get overlaid with a layer of strolling-musician schmaltz; the second movement comes off as a tragic plaint; and the scherzo is pounded out by the two cellos (the work is written for the unusual configuration of two violins, viola, and two cellos). This last trait is related to the tendency of big-name cellists to use the work as a chamber music vehicle -- it was a favorite of Pablo Casals, among others -- and to highlight their own parts. All these tendencies are reined in by the Orpheus Quartet and second cellist Pieter Wispelwey. Sample the slow central section of the Scherzo (track 3) , often played with operatic despair, but here a deeply mysterious zone of haunted contemplation. The work's big tunes are sweet without being insistent about it, and many passages are beautifully thought out and detailed. The interplay between the two cellos is allowed to emerge subtly -- give a listen to the very airy reading of the first movement's opening themes (after the introduction, starting about a minute into the work). Strongly recommended, with sound recording that loses none of the cellos' creeping pizzicatos.