Search - Mozart, Zukerma, Tokyo String Quartet :: String Quintets

Transformational Music-Making

D. DEGEORGE | Ellicott City, MD USA | 12/13/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc contains Mozart's two greatest works for string quintet, which happen to include my favorite and least-favorite. For some reason or other I have always had a blind spot regarding the G minor -- until I heard this outstanding recording (can't believe it took me this long to discover it--almost as if I've wasted sixteen years of my life). On the other hand, I believe that my own favorite Mozart string quintet, in C Major, K. 515, fares better in the more elegant performance by an augmented Grumiaux Trio in a venerable Philips set Complete String Quintets. Maybe that is because the Grumiaux performance, by being less assertive, lets the music establish a calmer basis in the beginning for the impending epic that it becomes (it is the longest of Mozart's quintets, and one of the longest pieces of chamber music in 3- or 4-movement sonata form that Mozart ever wrote).



These quintets are called viola quintets to distinguish them from other string quintets in which there are two cellos versus two violas, but in these performances the term viola quintet takes on another meaning--that of a viola backed up by a string quartet, at least at times. Considering the glorious playing of Pinchas Zukerman here, I can't say it's a bad thing that this recording gives his viola unusual prominence. That is true only part of the time anyway because either the engineers or the musicians or both have chosen to bring out each voice in the score as appropriate, each individual seeming to take a step closer to the microphone when it is his turn to shine.



The performances by the Tokyo and Zukerman of both these quintets are bigger-than-life, a benefit, in my way of thinking, to the usually wimpy-sounding G Minor, but maybe not so much so for the C Major, which stands perfectly well on its own without any selling on the part of the performers. Still, I cannot dismiss this performance of the C Major, which is truly a marvel of expressiveness.



I should warn the reader that my impression of the Mozart G Minor String Quintet as "wimpy" is my own peculiarity and that if you love this quintet as it is usually played you may find that this performance over-inflates it.



The recording is very in-your-face, recorded as loudly as possible without forcing compression--it retains an almost alarming dynamic range--quintet as orchestra!



In spite of my having one or two misgivings, the performances here are an absolute model of what music-making should be: all-out committed, profoundly expressive, and sincerely from the heart while exhibiting nearly flawless technique. I cannot find the words to say what a joy this is!

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