COMPOSERS: Schubert
LABELS: DG Originals
WORKS: Piano Quintet in A, D667 (Trout); String Quartet in D minor, D810 (Death and the Maiden)
PERFORMER: Emil Gilels (piano), Rainer Zepperitz (double bass) Amadeus Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: 449 746-2 ADD 1959/76
Emil Gilels joined members of the Amadeus Quartet in Turku, Finland, in 1975 to record Schubert’s Trout Quintet for DG. The famous Curzon/Vienna Octet performance (Decca) has slightly more warmth and idiomatic flexibility, but Gilels brings impressive grandeur to the piano part, and Rainer Zepperitz’s double bass resounds splendidly. The Amadeus Quartet taped Death and the Maiden in Hanover in 1959; long a benchmark account, its reading now has added fire and presence in this digitised transfer, but occasional shrillness disappoints in higher registers. Michael Jameson
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, D667 (Trout); String Quartet in D minor, D810 (Death and the Maiden)
Emil Gilels joined members of the Amadeus Quartet in Turku, Finland, in 1975 to record Schubert’s Trout Quintet for DG. The famous Curzon/Vienna Octet performance (Decca) has slightly more warmth and idiomatic flexibility, but Gilels brings impressive grandeur to the piano part, and Rainer Zepperitz’s double bass resounds splendidly. The Amadeus Quartet taped Death and the Maiden in Hanover in 1959; long a benchmark account, its reading now has added fire and presence in this digitised transfer, but occasional shrillness disappoints in higher registers. Michael Jameson
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:30 pm