Music Program Notes

Franck Piano Quintet Program Notes. 6/11/2017 0 Comments Franck Piano Quintet Program Notes For Classical Concerts. Photo by Hiromi Iwase. Franck – Piano Quintet in F minor. Cesar Franck (1822-90) Piano Quintet in F. In a state of emotional exhaustion over a steady patter of eighth notes in the piano.

I wanted to hear the Franck Quintet and this recording seemed an obvious choice. First, there aren’t that many other available recordings, which is perhaps reflective of its relative unpopularity. Second, it was cheap. And then there were all the favorable reviews. The opportunity to hear the obscure Chausson Quartet as opposed to more hackneyed choices like the Brahms or Dvorak quintets could also be viewed as an attraction. On a first hearing - and a second, and a third - the Franck struck me as a difficult work, more so than his popular Symphony and Violin Sonata, very beautiful but also somewhat monochromatic and lacking in internal contrasts, rendering the formal outlines of the piece blurry.

I began to wonder if the problem was not the performance rather than the work itself. Since then I’ve heard two others. The first was a live mono recording from 1963 by Claudio Arrau and the Juilliard Quartet, a fiercely dramatic performance, available as part of a somewhat pricey two-disc set.

The other, which I purchased from Marketplace, was a 1960 studio recording by Clifford Curzon and the Vienna Philharmonic Quartet, a more refined but also excellent performance. Both performances, by sharpening the internal contrasts within the Quintet, produced more inflected and dramatically shaped readings. As a result I’ve come to love the work. Now that I know the piece better this Levinas/Ludwig performance seems more lucid. Nonetheless, it is merely a good, not a great performance and doesn’t merit 5 stars. If your interest is primarily in the Franck I would get Curzon/Vienna, which is paired with the Dvorak quintet. I might have given this 3 stars but for the Chausson. Matrox Mil 7.5 Download here.

It is also not an easy piece, possessing a Brahmsian or Franckian density, but amply replaying repeated listening. The second movement is particular is quite beautiful. That makes this recording more recommendable than it otherwise would be, as there are even fewer alternatives than with the Franck.

By the Chausson. Ulead Photo Express 2.0 Download Free. Let's start with the good. The performance of Franck's brooding, intense Quintet in f minor by the Ludwig Quartet and Michael Levinas is the best I've heard. It is very musical, very emotional, structurally well-formed and comes off powerfully.

I recommend it and will make this CD easily worth purchasing just for the first half of the program. After a number of times listening to Chausson's Quartet, I just don't think it's a very good piece. I'm glad some of the other reviewers are enjoying it, but am puzzled. The piece is turgid, with a largely homogenous texture and, what I'm coming to conclude is Chausson's fatal flaw as a composer, a complete lack of creativity in rhythmic and metric terms.

Engineering Software As A Service Armando Fox Pdf Combine. What results is an unmemorable, unengaging work which comes close to note-spinning. The Ludwig Quartet does its part with a nice performance.

Sound quality is very average. I downgraded to 4-stars because of the Chausson's mediocrity and this sound engineering, but the Franck interpretation is excellent and makes me happy to own the disc for that reason alone. Update: Since writing up this review, I have listened to the Chilingirian Quartet recording of the Chausson work on Hyperion. I unequivocally recommend this more recent recording over the good effort by the Ludwig quartet. The Chilingirian version has more differentiated textures, which heightens my understanding of the work's structure and avoids the homogeneity of the Ludwig rendition, and the sound engineering is much, much better.

The Franck Piano Quintet is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, piano quintet I've ever heard. There aren't a ton of great piano quintets, but composers of the Romantic era seemed to make the greatest contributions to this sub-genre. The only other piano quintets I would put at or near the same level as Franck's entry would be those composed by Brahms, Dvorak and Faure (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but those are the three other greats that immediately come to mind). As much as I love those other piano quintets, this is the one I look most forward to listening to, and it never lets me down - especially this recording! To use a sports metaphor, the musicians here are 'in the zone.' It sounds like they're channeling Franck through their instruments and playing everything as well as possible. They truly play as one, and no one artificially sticks out.