Piano Quartet / Piano Quintet / Barcarolle Naxos 8.572904
- Composer: Camille Saint-Saens
- Ensemble: Fine Arts Quartet
- Artist: Cristina Ortiz
Saint-Saëns holds a vital place in the history of French chamber music. At a time when his compatriots were more devoted to opera and song, Saint-Saëns (who wrote both, too) repeatedly produced chamber music of compelling individuality and lasting significance. The 1875 Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op 41 remains one of the great works in the chamber repertory, a masterful example of the composer’s organisational skill and lyric gifts. The gorgeous Barcarolle is followed by the youthful Piano Quintet in A minor, Op 14, a brilliantly confident work with a concerto-like rôle for the piano.
Piano Quartet / Piano Quintet / Barcarolle Review
By the time of Camille Saint-Saëns’ death in 1921, the musical world had passed through a massive upheaval, his works gaining the unjust label of ‘confectionery’. In reality much of his output had more strength than his immediate contemporaries, the Piano Quartet and Quintets being particular examples, the latter dating back to 1855, when its harmonies would have been deemed quite modern. The piano part is nothing short of a virtuoso concerto, while the string writing is highly accomplished for the twenty-year-old composer, if at times its role is one of accompaniment. Certainly the pianist is more than justified in dominating the proceedings, Cristina Ortiz, establishing that fact in the opening bars. She then takes the third movement scherzo by the scruff of its neck and hurtles through it, just as the music requires to be brought to life, and if the finale does not contain the memorable material of the earlier movements, the work, as a whole, is certainly worth your acquaintance. The Quartet comes from twenty years later when he was working with the assured hand of a mature composer, and we hear the influences he was to pass to his pupil, Gabriel Faure. Integrating the piano to a far greater degree than in the Quintet, it still remains a very challenging keyboard score, the impish scherzo coming in direct descent of Mendelssohn, while the finale—the works most extended movement—looks forward to the music of Brahms. Since their last Naxos recording, the Fine Arts Quartet have a new cello, Robert Cohen, remembered for his outstanding 1970’s recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. They sound very well as a new team, the record’s engineer offering plenty of inner detail. David Denton – David's Review Corner