Information
Composer: Bohuslav Martinů
Ivan Klánský, piano
Kocian Quartet
Pavel Hůla, violin
Miloš Černý, violin
Zbyněk Paďourek, viola
Václav Bernášek, cello
Date: 2009
Label: Praga Digitals
http://www.pragadigitals.com/Bohuslav-MARTINU-PIANO-QUINTET-No-2-H298-No-1-H229-PIANO-QUARTET-H287-KOCIAN-Quartet-Klansky
- (01) Piano Quintet No. 2, H 298
- (05) Piano Quintet No. 1, H 229
- (09) Piano Quartet, H 287
Ivan Klánský, piano
Kocian Quartet
Pavel Hůla, violin
Miloš Černý, violin
Zbyněk Paďourek, viola
Václav Bernášek, cello
Date: 2009
Label: Praga Digitals
http://www.pragadigitals.com/Bohuslav-MARTINU-PIANO-QUINTET-No-2-H298-No-1-H229-PIANO-QUARTET-H287-KOCIAN-Quartet-Klansky
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The most atypical work on this disc is the earliest: the Piano Quintet No. 1 from 1933. It lacks in three of its four movements the motoric rhythms, repetitive harmonic blocks, and familial group of themes that reappear in many of Martinu’s second-tier compositions. It is as though the composer had deliberately set out to create something that didn’t possess his habitual fingerprints of style or structure; and if so, he certainly succeeded. Think Milhaud, with a bit of Honegger, and you’ll get some idea of what to expect. Its most interesting movement is the Adagio, pitting the strings in full-bodied Czech romantic mode against a pointillist, sometimes bitonal commentary by the piano.
The Piano Quartet was completed in 1942. It’s more typical of the composer’s music at the time, a pair of unimpressive neo-Classical movements offering stereotypical gestures on either side of an expressive, dissonant threnody that encompasses its own scherzo. It was followed, two years later, by the Piano Quintet No. 2, a more inspired example of the same influences at work on Martinu. All the qualities noted above as missing in the First Quintet are here, but put to better use. The Scherzo, veering with pause and seemingly without reason among grim, pensive, and witty episodes, is especially noteworthy, as is the finale, beginning with a powerful, passacaglia-like introduction for strings that repeatedly returns at length to interrupt the subsequently sunnier proceedings.
I had my initial concerns about the Kocian Quartet. Several of their other recordings have impressed as long on technique, while exhibiting a tendency heard in some modern chamber groups to take slow movements at a prosaically fast pace. That isn’t the case on this album, however. The performances in faster movements don’t lack for verve, but it’s the rest that impresses for being unexpected: the Adagio and the finale to the Piano Quintet No. 2, for instance, played with tonal warmth and at a measured tread that brings their emotional message home.
In Martinu of this vintage, performances succeed best by walking a fine line between the music’s neo-Classical and Romantic aspects. While none of these works has lacked for earlier recordings, not all of those have managed the balancing act. Both Piano Quintets appear, along with the Sonata for Two Violins and Piano, on Naxos 8.557861. The Martinu Quartet and pianist Karel Košárek deliver sparkling performances that I find slightly too reserved but technically expert. Peter Frankl joined the Lindsays for the Second Piano Quintet on ASV 889, a reading that’s slipshod over details, though colorful. The Piano Quartet is played expertly on Virgin Classics 61094 by the Domus Piano Quartet—far better than the heavy-handed Artis Ensemble of Stuttgart (Hänssler Classic 98352) and the too mellow Ames Piano Quartet (Dorian 93261), filing off the spikier edges in this music.
My own feeling is that the Martinus with Košárek offer a satisfactory alternative to the current disc under review, assuming you want just the piano quintets. The Naxos CD also has slightly cleaner sound, making textures more transparent. But the Kocians mine a bit more of the emotional pay dirt in both works. Either will do, as will the Domus folks in the Piano Quartet.
-- Barry Brenesal, FANFARE
More reviews:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/martinu-piano-quintets-h-229-298-piano-quartet-h-287-mw0001587006
https://www.audaud.com/bohuslav-martinu-piano-quintet-nos-2-h-298-piano-quintet-no-1-h-229-piano-quartet-h-287-ivan-klansky-piano-kocian-quartet-praga-digitals/
The Piano Quartet was completed in 1942. It’s more typical of the composer’s music at the time, a pair of unimpressive neo-Classical movements offering stereotypical gestures on either side of an expressive, dissonant threnody that encompasses its own scherzo. It was followed, two years later, by the Piano Quintet No. 2, a more inspired example of the same influences at work on Martinu. All the qualities noted above as missing in the First Quintet are here, but put to better use. The Scherzo, veering with pause and seemingly without reason among grim, pensive, and witty episodes, is especially noteworthy, as is the finale, beginning with a powerful, passacaglia-like introduction for strings that repeatedly returns at length to interrupt the subsequently sunnier proceedings.
I had my initial concerns about the Kocian Quartet. Several of their other recordings have impressed as long on technique, while exhibiting a tendency heard in some modern chamber groups to take slow movements at a prosaically fast pace. That isn’t the case on this album, however. The performances in faster movements don’t lack for verve, but it’s the rest that impresses for being unexpected: the Adagio and the finale to the Piano Quintet No. 2, for instance, played with tonal warmth and at a measured tread that brings their emotional message home.
In Martinu of this vintage, performances succeed best by walking a fine line between the music’s neo-Classical and Romantic aspects. While none of these works has lacked for earlier recordings, not all of those have managed the balancing act. Both Piano Quintets appear, along with the Sonata for Two Violins and Piano, on Naxos 8.557861. The Martinu Quartet and pianist Karel Košárek deliver sparkling performances that I find slightly too reserved but technically expert. Peter Frankl joined the Lindsays for the Second Piano Quintet on ASV 889, a reading that’s slipshod over details, though colorful. The Piano Quartet is played expertly on Virgin Classics 61094 by the Domus Piano Quartet—far better than the heavy-handed Artis Ensemble of Stuttgart (Hänssler Classic 98352) and the too mellow Ames Piano Quartet (Dorian 93261), filing off the spikier edges in this music.
My own feeling is that the Martinus with Košárek offer a satisfactory alternative to the current disc under review, assuming you want just the piano quintets. The Naxos CD also has slightly cleaner sound, making textures more transparent. But the Kocians mine a bit more of the emotional pay dirt in both works. Either will do, as will the Domus folks in the Piano Quartet.
-- Barry Brenesal, FANFARE
More reviews:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/martinu-piano-quintets-h-229-298-piano-quartet-h-287-mw0001587006
https://www.audaud.com/bohuslav-martinu-piano-quintet-nos-2-h-298-piano-quintet-no-1-h-229-piano-quartet-h-287-ivan-klansky-piano-kocian-quartet-praga-digitals/
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Bohuslav Martinů (December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. Martinů began as a violinist of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In the early 1930s he found his main font for compositional style, the neo-classical as developed by Stravinsky. With this, he expanded to become a prolific composer, who wrote almost 400 pieces, included 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He is compared with Prokofiev and Bartók in his innovative incorporation of Central European ethnomusicology into his music.
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The Kocian Quartet was founded in Prague in 1972. The founding members - Pravoslav Kohout (first violin), Jan Odstrcil (second violin), Jirí Najnar (viola), and Václav Bernásek (cello) - were all Prague Academy of Music graduates. Kocian Quartet has earned the reputation as one of the foremost Czech string quartets of its time. Its repertory is broad, encompassing standards by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as mainstream Czech works by Dvorák, Smetana, Janácek, and Martinu. The Quartet has made numerous recordings for several labels, among them Praga and Orfeo.
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