エルガー&ビーチ: ピアノ五重奏曲集

後期ロマン派の傑作2曲。エイミー・ビーチのピアノ五重奏曲が、エルガーのピアノ五重奏曲に匹敵するほど魅力的で興味深いことが証明されています。
ユニバーサル・ミュージック/IMS

The two piano quintets on this album qualify as neglected, even the repertory work by Edward Elgar, from his chamber music year of 1918, is not so often heard. As for the Piano Quintet in F sharp minor, Op. 67, of Amy Beach, its comparative rarity is a crying shame. When this album appeared in 2020, the work had not been recorded for 12 years, and it has rarely been performed by groups of the caliber of the Takacs Quartet and pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the latter especially sensitive to the musics symphonic dimensions. The quintet opens and ends with unisons or octaves, seeming to take on a distinct structure of its own in parallel with the large classical forms it embodies. The work is certainly influenced by Brahms and seems to quote some of his music but has an often mysterious mood that is all its own. Nigel Simeone writes that it is truly imbued with the spirit of Brahms without ever seeming derivative. The Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84, likewise has a bit of Brahms, and a bit of mystery (it apparently, like other Elgar works, had a hidden program), and the two works, complementary but distinct, make an ideal program. Ohlsson has not lost a step in senior citizenhood, and this music is the bread and butter of the Takacs Quartet. Fine sound from the Wyastone Concert Hall is just icing on the cake. Those who dont know Beachs quintet are urged to seek this out without delay; it is a more distinctive work than her Gaelic Symphony, Op. 32, and Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, Op. 45.