These are finely wrought and
expressive performances of the two Piano Quartets. The recording
quality is a good one, spacious, not clinical.
The Hermitage Trio and Kathryn Stott, that most accomplished musician, start the C minor quite toughly. The tempo is finely judged, but the emphasis is on avoiding the fey or under-nourished. Curiously therefore their Scherzo is a degree under-characterized, though again it’s played with technical eloquence and a real degree of confidence. And there’s certainly a noble simplicity to the cello and piano statements in the slow movement. Stott leads the finale’s dance with verve and resilient rhythm.
In the opening movement of the companion G minor the Allegro is stressed somewhat at the expense of molto moderato. In contradistinction to their preference for bracing tempi elsewhere the slow movement is really very slow. I think it thereby misses the implicit nobility of the writing and the subtlety of the melancholia and its more quicksilver intimations. This to me is rather impersonal, straining at meaning, and imposing a stratum of heaviness instead.
As a corollary I would add that Stott’s playing of the Fourth Nocturne is illuminated by her lovely touch. (MusicWeb International / Jonathan Woolf)
The Hermitage Trio and Kathryn Stott, that most accomplished musician, start the C minor quite toughly. The tempo is finely judged, but the emphasis is on avoiding the fey or under-nourished. Curiously therefore their Scherzo is a degree under-characterized, though again it’s played with technical eloquence and a real degree of confidence. And there’s certainly a noble simplicity to the cello and piano statements in the slow movement. Stott leads the finale’s dance with verve and resilient rhythm.
In the opening movement of the companion G minor the Allegro is stressed somewhat at the expense of molto moderato. In contradistinction to their preference for bracing tempi elsewhere the slow movement is really very slow. I think it thereby misses the implicit nobility of the writing and the subtlety of the melancholia and its more quicksilver intimations. This to me is rather impersonal, straining at meaning, and imposing a stratum of heaviness instead.
As a corollary I would add that Stott’s playing of the Fourth Nocturne is illuminated by her lovely touch. (MusicWeb International / Jonathan Woolf)
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