Schubert: "Trout " Quintet | Yo-Yo Ma, Franz Schubert, ... | cheaper reissue of a fine recording...

Schubert: "Trout " Quintet | Yo-Yo Ma, Franz Schubert, ... | Superb Performance, Weak reissue

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Schubert: "Trout "...

	Schubert: "Trout " Quintet Yo-Yo Ma, Franz Schubert, ... Sony, 2005 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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cheaper reissue of a fine recording from 1995, with the loss of booklet notes

Sony has of course in its catalog one recording of the "Trout" quintet which has universally been recognized as a truly "great performance" since its first publication in 1967: the one by Rudolf Serkin and his partners from the Marlboro festival, now available with Mozart's clarinet quintet performed by Harold Wright (Schubert: Piano Quintet "Trout"; Mozart: Clarinet Quintet). Still, the present recording from 1995 around stars Emmanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma is also a fine, albeit interpretively slanted performance. Its values are brisk and almost hard-driven tempos throughout, muscular phrasings, crisp piano playing and ample lyricism from the strings. For more developed comments, see my review under the original issue: Schubert: Quintet, Op. 114 "The Trout" / Sonata, D. 821 "Arpeggione". Not a "Trout" for all tastes then and especially not for those who prefer a more easy-going, genial Schubert, but one that is treasurable precisely for its radicalism of approach. With the welcome addition of the Lied on which Schubert based his "Trout" variations, here nicely if lightly sung by Barbara Bonney, the Arpeggione sonata, played by the Ma-Ax duet, is a significant filler and a welcome complement to the weightier, more brooding and wistful approach of Rostropovich and Britten in 1968 (Decca Schubert, Debussy / Rostropovich, Britten). Ma emits unfailingly rich and creamy sonorities, with a wealth of vocal inflexions, and in the Finale displays awesome virtuosity. Thanks to this reissue, some 10 years after its original publication, you can now get it for cheaper, but at the cost of the original booklet's program notes, which are now reduced to an insignificant blurb. Well, it is for you to decide if a more developed pabulum is worth the extra bucks. I didn't think so.

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Superb Performance, Weak reissue

Unfortunately, I am fortunate enough to have the original issue of this CD, without the notes removed so I don't miss what the previous reviewer finds lacking. I will follow his lead by noting that especially for musical innocents like myself, every piece of help the CD and give me is valueable, so I would miss it. If you are lucky enough to get a copy of the 1996 issue with the principal performers hard at work on their instruments under a majestic oak(?) tree in the summer sun, you will be much happier with your Schubert trout experience. But then again, the music is all the same, and I find it glorious, a veritable classical 'Super Session'.

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