Description
The disc presents two quintets for piano and string quartet by two distinguished Hungarian composers from the 20th century: Bela Bartok and Ernst von Dohnanyi. While Bartok's Piano Quintet is an outstanding juvenilia, Dohnanyi's sophisticated work represents its author at its best.
This disc sees the first time collaboration between the Zemlinsky Quartet and Paolo Giacometti and is a must for anyone interested in the great tradition of Mitteleuropa chamber music. The unique coupling of these two beautiful and rarely recorded works are underrated by discography.
The two Quintets were composed within a ten year span (1904-1914), a period of fantastic musical flourishing.
Zemlinsky Quartet belongs to the glorious tradition of Centre-European string quartets, characterized by nobility and spontaneity of expression, flawless technique, lack of mannersisms, profound and humble insight of the score.
"this new recording […] balances the lightness and the richness really well. It's alongside Bela Bartok's youthful Piano Quintet in an appropriately Brahmsian performance." - BBC Radio 3, Record Review (Andrew McGregor)