Brahms: Piano Quartets

$18.99
Label
Quartz Music
Release Date
January 1, 2014
Format
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BRAHMS Piano Quartets Nos. 1–3 • Pro Arte Pn Qrt • QUARTZ 2105 (2 CDs: 119:03)


The current incarnation of the Pro Arte Piano Quartet was founded in 1989 by three members of the St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble—Kenneth Sillito, violin, Robert Smissen, viola, and Stephen Orton, cello—and pianist Hamish Milne; the four play in this recording, made back in 2008 and now being released for the first time. Violinist Sillito is the one member in common with the old Pro Arte, whose 1971 recording of the C-Minor Third Quartet, along with the Piano Quartet of Schumann, I reviewed in Fanfare 35:6. To add to the possible confusion, there has already been a recording of the Brahms piano quartets by another ensemble of the same name, based in Bucharest, for the Arte Nova label. The original Pro Arte Quartet, and the most famous ensemble to bear the name, was a string quartet founded in Belgium in 1912; it recorded the Brahms G-Minor First Piano Quartet with Arthur Rubinstein in 1932, and has been in continuous existence ever since, serving since 1941 as artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Finally, there is another string quartet by the same name currently based in Salzburg!


So much for the name; what of the music-making? For the most part it’s thoroughly admirable. In the G-Minor Quartet the tempos are ideal, the musicians are consistently responsive to one another, and the balances are excellent. Pianist Milne is alternately expressive and energetic—never flamboyant—as required. This makes the G-Minor the strongest performance of the three. In the A-Major Second Quartet, which as has become customary stands alone on the second disc, the tempos are not so unerringly judged: The first movement seems to go on autopilot, while the second seems hurried and lacking in the sense of mystery that dominates its middle section. The finale is downright headlong.


The first movement of the C-Minor Quartet is rock-solid, but its introverted moments are less lyrical than those of Tamás Vásáry and colleagues on DG; similarly, the second movement scherzo is less hell-bent, the third movement cello song less meltingly beautiful. Violinist Sillito still plays awfully well, but perhaps not quite as sweetly as he once did. The recording is terrific. In short, these are very high-level performances, but ultimately do not supplant the versions by Vásáry et al., Domus (on Virgin), or the Fauré Quartet (in Nos. 1 and 3, also on DG). Call it an honorable mention.


FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan


Product Description:

  • Release Date: January 01, 2014


  • UPC: 880040210528


  • Catalog Number: QTZ2105


  • Label: Quartz Music


  • Number of Discs: 2


  • Composer: Johanes, Brahms


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Pro Arte Piano Quartet


  • Performer: PRO ARTE PIANO QUARTET