Schumann, Dohnányi: Piano Quintets

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The program notes for this record quote musicologist Alfred Neuman to the effect that the great romantic piano quintets were conceived by their composers as piano concertos with string accompaniment. This rather bold statement would be hotly debated by most string players, who regard these works as chamber music, though it is true that the piano, by its very nature, dominates the texture. No wonder Earl Wild, a brilliant virtuoso, took the next step and turned the string quartet into an orchestra. Unfortunately, this makes the sound thick and robs the musicians of the interplay that permits tonal and rhythmic flexibility; instead of ardently romantic, the music becomes stiff, overblown, and exaggerated. Wild's thundering, heavily accented approach precludes any sense of balance even with multiple players; the low instruments are especially outmatched. The loud, assertive sections are the most successful.

Dohnányi wrote his quintet at 18. Well-made, effective, and very romantic, it was an immediate success, though clearly influenced by Schumann and Brahms. It is less unsuitable for orchestral treatment than the Schumann, which loses all its delicacy, tenderness, poetry, and intimacy; the second movement is without mystery or melancholy and so slow that it falls apart and becomes a funeral march. One might say this arrangement underlines the work's weaknesses and almost conceals its strengths. --Edith Eisler

American Record Guide, September/October 2000
Here is a unique listening experience that packs a huge emotional punch. Wild plays with breathtaking virtuosity and sumptuous poetry.

Album Description
Two brilliant Romantic piano quintets, universally regarded as chamber music masterpieces, are recorded here for the first time in elegantly expanded versions for piano with string orchestra. The lush sonics and gorgeous textures originally imagined by both, Schumann and Dohnányi vividly come alive in these dramatic performances recorded in March 2000 using 24-bit HDCD technology.

Schumann, Dohnányi: Piano Quintets

Tracks:

Pno Qnt in E flat, Op.44: I. Allegro Brillante
Pno Qnt in E flat, Op.44: II. In Modo D'una Marcia: Un Poco Largamente
Pno Qnt in E flat, Op.44: III. Scherzo: Molto Vivace
Pno Qnt in E flat, Op.44: IV. Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Pno Qnt in c, Op.1: I. Allegro
Pno Qnt in c, Op.1: II. Scherzo: Allegro Vivace
Pno Qnt in c, Op.1: III. Adagio: Quasi Andante
Pno Qnt in c, Op.1: IV. Finale: Allegro Animato

Amazon.com

The program notes for this record quote musicologist Alfred Neuman to the effect that the great romantic piano quintets were conceived by their composers as piano concertos with string accompaniment. This rather bold statement would be hotly debated by most string players, who regard these works as chamber music, though it is true that the piano, by its very nature, dominates the texture. No wonder Earl Wild, a brilliant virtuoso, took the next step and turned the string quartet into an orchestra. Unfortunately, this makes the sound thick and robs the musicians of the interplay that permits tonal and rhythmic flexibility; instead of ardently romantic, the music becomes stiff, overblown, and exaggerated. Wild's thundering, heavily accented approach precludes any sense of balance even with multiple players; the low instruments are especially outmatched. The loud, assertive sections are the most successful.

Album Description

Two brilliant Romantic piano quintets, universally regarded as chamber music masterpieces, are recorded here for the first time in elegantly expanded versions for piano with string orchestra. The lush sonics and gorgeous textures originally imagined by both, Schumann and Dohnányi vividly come alive in these dramatic performances recorded in March 2000 using 24-bit HDCD technology.

Customer Reviews:

It's time for you to get close to that neglected composer!.......2006-12-01

Dohnányi has suffered a serious background for the most of audiences; he has been designed as the composer of "Variations of a nursery song" and nothing else. And that' s has been a terrible reductionism . His Piano Quintet despite of the fact to possess all the Brahmsian idiosyncrasies you want, it' s a beautiful crafted work, that reveals us a man who decided to remain in counter flow respect the modern tendencies of the last years of the XIX Century.

You may even argue he was a minor composer and so to conclude the life is too short to waste it into listening such miniaturist composer. But I would answer precisely using that same argument in order to know the whole musical geography around expression taking into account we are in a serious transitional moment in which the modernism, impressionism and the arousing of the New Viennese school was in the eve of new musical paths.

On the other hand, we have one of the most beautiful Piano Quintets ever composed the Op. 44 of Robert Schumann, and keeping in mind we have to Earl Wild in the noble instrument, how could you fail with this choice?

Absolutely recommended.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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