Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Moura Lympany :: Schubert: Piano Quintet "The Trout"; Brahms: String Sextet No. 1

A fine "Trout", brisk and muscular, and a fiery and passiona

Discophage | France | 11/01/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This « Trout » was recorded in 1974 by Dame Moura Lympany and principals of the London Symphony Orchestra, an it is an excellent version, brisk and muscular, with much rhythmic bite. The piano is powerful yet capable of fine nuances and felicitous lightness of touch, while string tone is somewhat on the dry side yet not wanting in heart-gripping lyricism. Not a "Trout" for all tastes, and especially not for those who favor a more relaxed and easy-going view of Schubert's pastoral masterpiece (yet these should hear Limpany's theme and variations), but a fine one nonetheless; see my more detailed review under the performance's earlier CD reissue, already on EMI UK's budget branch Classics for Pleasure, but paired with a mediocre reading of Schubert's 14th quartet "Death & the Maiden" by the Gabrieli Quartet from 1971.



This 1998 reissue pairs it with a 1975 recording of Brahms' first string sextet by the principals of one of London's competing symphony orchestras - the London Philharmonic. The pairing is less coherent (as it shares neither composer nor performers) but more commendable interpretively. Admittedly the string band led by Rodney Friend is rather dry in tone production and not always very tidy, with the violin section in particular often sounding shrill, and Friend himself shows some pitch uncertainty in one or two spots. Yet it is a passionate and burningly intense interpretation, especially in the opening movement "Allegro ma non troppo" (taken without repeat, alas). The 2nd movement (theme and variations) doesn't elicit the kind of suffering weight imparted to it by the string bands led by Casals (in an otherwise plodding reading from 1953, on Sony) or Menuhin (EMI), but it is impassioned, with the 3rd variation (3:53) sounding like cries of despair and the 5th like a strange Christmas Carol (despite unsubtle tone production from the violins). The Scherzo is commendably forward-moving (it is written allegro molto, though most ensembles take it as a kind of deliberate, rustic march) but again the violin sound not very subtle, and the same holds true with the finale, which strikes a fine tempo, neither lingering (as Menuhin or Casals) nor rushing (as Archibudelli on Sony - and the latter option anyway seems preferable to me); but the coda doesn't really get off the ground.



An interpretation not without blemishes then but interesting and worthwhile nonetheless for its rarely paralleled fire and passion. So unless you want specifically the "Trout" and "Death & the Maiden" coupling and are ready to put up with an inferior version of the latter (which by the way can be found on a twofer devoted to the Gabrieli Quartet, on the same label), this Schubert-Brahms is the one to get.

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