Schubert’s Quintet in C is one of those pieces that seems to bring out the best in most of the groups that play it–or at least, many have risen to its challenges with uncommon success. Certainly this newcomer belongs among the top candidates. It has everything: a point of view, impeccable execution, attention to detail, and plenty of spontaneity. Above all, it captures the necessary sense of flow that all great Schubert performances must have if they aren’t to bog down in the music’s ample, if always attractive, highways and byways.
This quality is most apparent in the Adagio, which at slightly more than 14 minutes has a first subject that consists of actual phrases rather than scattered fragments separated (at some distance from one another) by pizzicato plonks. It’s the difference between stillness and stasis, and the music’s passionate eruptions sound all the more powerful for being placed in a context that presents them as potential realized, rather than as gratuitous acts of violence. The same excellent timing and feel for phrase rhythm binds the first-movement exposition into an unusually unified whole and justifies the inclusion of its repeat.
The scherzo really has wings, its rhythms buoyantly sprung, the stylized horn calls ringing out proudly, while the trio sustains its slower momentum in a single arch of gentle melody. Best of all, the group really digs into the finale, the moderate tempo allowing time for some really impassioned (but never mannered) phrasing of its principal theme. The coda is positively hair-raising in its intensity. The inclusion of the early E-flat Quartet D. 87 makes a charming bonus, and it’s every bit as well played as the Quintet–but the larger work obviously remains the star of this particular show. Sonically, the production is first-rate: we expect no less from the German radio engineers in Cologne. Terrific! [5/1/2006]
