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     Piano Quintets

Reynaldo Hahn
(1874-1947)

Sonata in C Major for Violin & Piano (20:12)
Soliloque et Forlane for Viola & Piano (7:42)
Romance in A Major for Violin & Piano (4:27)
Piano Quartet #3 in G Major (21:57)
Si mes vers avaient des alles (1:53)
Nocturne in E Flat Major for Violin & Piano (5:30)

Stephen Coombs, piano
Ccharles Sewart, violin
Yuko Inoue, viola
Philip De Groote, cello
Hyperion CDA67391 62:01

Hahn was a composer, a conductor, a performer, and a respected music critic. He was most popular before World War I (the Belle Époch) but subsequently fell out of fashion. He was often classified as a mere "salon" composer – with much of his music considered lightweight because it is immediately appealing and accessible. Fortunately for us, his music has come back into favor among recording artists.

If this sonata were not as hauntingly melodious and touching, it would simply be a curiosity, a total musical anachronism. Hahn wrote this sonata in 1926, yet in a blindfold test, one might guess it was sibling to the first Fauré (1877) or Franck (1886) violin sonatas. But the Hahn Violin Sonata is one of those rare gems that can always appeal to the musician and the listener. The form is classical, and the last movement of the sonata reprises the beautiful first movement melody, making a satisfactory arch. The second movement moves lickety-split, amusing and witty – only lasting for slightly over three minutes. This movement is very much in the jolly spirit of the third movement of the Op. 13 violin sonata of Fauré.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Paul Le Flem
(1881-1984)

Quintet for Piano & Strings in C minor 36:40
Sonata for Violin & Piano (1905) 28:57

Louvigny String Quartet
Alain Jacquon, piano
Timpani 1C1077

Le Flem's quintet sounds like it is a close relative of Ravel's string quartet or Faure's first piano quartet both in tonality and in emotional evocations. This haunting chamber music deserves a wider audience. The playing by Jacquon and the Louvigny String Quartet (Philip Koch & Fabian Perdichizzi, violins; Ilan Schneider, viola; Aleksandr Kramouchin, cello) is excellent, and the entire CD is an impressionist treat.

[ Available on CD: Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ]

[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus ]

Béla Bartók
(1881-1945)

Rhapsody #1
Rhapsody #2
Andante for Violin & Piano
Piano Quintet

György Pauk, violin
Jenö Jandó, piano
Kodály Quartet
Naxos 8.550886 66:37

The rhapsodies for violin and piano, based on folk dances, are familiar from their versions for violin and orchestra. The rarity is the piano quintet, a 42-minute work from early in Bartók's career. His models include Richard Strauss, Brahms and Dvořák but with unmistakable influences of Hungarian dance. Even if you find later Bartók daunting, admirers of those composers will find much to enjoy.

[ Available on CD: Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ]

[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Julius Röntgen
(1855-1932)

Quintet for Piano & Strings Op. 100 (1927)
Trio for Clarinet, Viola & Piano (1921)
Sonata for Viola & Piano in C Minor (1924)
Sextet in G Major (1931)

ARC Ensemble
Artists of the Royal Conservatory (Canada)
RCA Red Seal 88697-15837-2 73:12

Ask a string player to free-associate on the word "octet" and you will hear "Mendelssohn". Ask a string player about the word "sextet" and you will most likely evoke the name "Brahms". Julius Röntgen's string sextet is a glorious addition to the repertoire. Although it was written in 1931, it is absolutely in the tradition and style of Brahms as are the other fine chamber works on this CD. They are all performed with excellence by the ARC ensemble, Artists of the Royal Conservatory. ARC is led by Simon Wynberg and is made up of faculty members of the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

The title "Right Through The Bone" was inspired by Edvard Grieg's remark about his good friend Julius Röntgen and his distant relative, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Wilhelm Röntgen's x-rays only went up to the bone and stopped. But Julius Röntgen's music went right through the bone and directly to the heart!

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com - Donemus ]

Jean Cras
(1879-1932)

Quintet for Piano and Strings (1922)
String Quartet (1909)

Alain Jacquon, piano
Quartet Louvigny
Timpani 1C1066 74:33

Jean Cras was an officer in the French Navy, and an extremely talented musical autodidact. He was tutored for a short but intensive period by Henri Duparc, and he spoke fluently the language of Debussy, Ravel, and the Impressionists.

Cras' Quintet for piano and strings was planned as a musical shipboard adventure. The four movements are marked "Clear and Joyful, Calm and Peaceful, Alert and Decisive, Passionate and Proud" and there are program notes to go along with them. As you listen, you can hear the influence of his native Brittany's sea shanties, the hints of the foreign ports of call, the exotic scales of Arabic and Asian music, and in the last movement – about three and a half minutes into the movement) – you can hear an imitation of a Chinese stringed instrument (erhu). All are woven seamlessly into the fabric of the music.

Ordinarily I don't like having "programs" imposed upon my listening, but there is enough good music here for you to write your own adventure. The constant motion is IN the music; the swells of sound could really be the sea!

There is another composition of Cras' that will thrill those who hunger for more ocean voyages: His Ship's Log (Journal de bard) can be found on Timpani 2C2037 in an excellent 2CD set of Cras' orchestral music. However I found that with just a piano and four strings Cras could provide me with the emotions and colors of my own cruise on a luxury liner.

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