George Onslow - Piano Quintet; Piano Sextet (Gianluca Luisi; Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt)

Information

Composer: George Onslow

• (01) Piano Sextet in E flat major, Op. 30
• (05) Piano Quintet in B flat major, Op. 79bis

Gianluca Luisi, piano
Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt
Peter Agoston, violin
Klaus Schwamm, violin
Wolfgang Tluck, viola
Sabine Krams, cello
Timm-Johannes Trappe, double bass

Date: 2007
Label: Musikproducktion Dabringhaus und Grimm

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Review

Smile, please: you should be delighted to make the acquaintance of Mr Onslow

Born in Clermont-Ferrand, the Anglo-French George Onslow (1784‑1853), grandson of the first Lord Onslow, spent almost all his life in France. Among a prolific amount of chamber music, including 34 quintets and 36 quartets for strings, is Le quintette de la balle depicting the occasion when, on a wolf-hunt, “a spent ball hit him in the face, rendering him somewhat deaf in one ear for the rest of his life”. Perhaps the excellent Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt will revive it. I for one am intrigued – as I was by these two captivating and quite forgotten works.

The Sextet, composed in 1825 and dedicated to Hummel, became one of the most popular works of its kind in the Parisian salons of the 1850s. You can see why. After its somewhat dutiful sonata-form first movement, there is a charming minuet followed by a wonderfully quirky Andante con variazioni (see if it makes you smile, as it did me) rounded off by a sparkling Allegro, all reminiscent of the work’s dedicatee and none the worse for that.

The 1849 Quintet is a reworking of Onslow’s Grand Septet for piano, four woodwind, horn and double bass, hence the Quintet’s “bis” assignment with the same unusual line-up (piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass) as Schubert’s Trout Quintet. Onslow’s cannot claim to be of equal merit but it would certainly make an entertaining companion, its four well crafted, attractively themed movements lasting a substantial 37 minutes. These performances are stylish and entertaining, though some may have wished for the dominating and busy piano to be more closely integrated with the strings in the recording’s empty concert hall acoustic.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/May/Onslow_chamber_60321172.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/george-onslow-piano-quintet-op-79bis-piano-sextet-op-30-mw0001848846

https://www.amazon.com/Onslow-Piano-Quintet-Sextet-Op-30/dp/B000NVLF50

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George Onslow (27 July 1784 – 3 October 1853) was a French composer of English descent. His wealth, position and personal tastes allowed him to pursue a path unfamiliar to most of his French contemporaries, and more similar to that of his contemporary German romantic composers. Onslow was a prolific composer of chamber music (including 36 string quartets, 34 string quintets and 10 piano trios). He also wrote four symphonies, four operas and other works for piano and strings. Esteemed by many of the critics of his time, his reputation declined swiftly after his death and has only been revived in recent years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Onslow_(composer)

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The Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt was established in 1987 by members of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and is now a highly acclaimed string quintet, which sometimes also includes other instruments such as piano or wind. The music that the Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt performs and makes accessible to a broad public includes not only well-known classical and Romantic masterpieces of the 18th and 19th century but also – and primarily – unknown masterpieces from this period of time. The Ensemble’s high artistic standard has been demonstrated by radio productions and award-winning CD editions.
http://www.ensembleconcertantfrankfurt.de/ECF/Ensemble_Concertant_Frankfurt_eng.html

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