MOZART: Piano Quartet No.1 KV478, Piano Quartet No. 2 KV493 – Mozart Piano Quartet – Mark Gothoni/ Hartmut Rohde/ Peter Hörr/ Paul Rivinius – MD&G Multichannel SACD 9431579-6 (2+2+2/5.1); 66:50 ***** [Distr. by Koch]:
It is interesting to hear how Haydn’s chamber music for piano and strings developed by listening to his piano trios. To begin with, the works are really piano sonatas with a light accompanying violin part and a cello part doubling the piano’s bottom end. Then after the first seventeen, the writing gradually becomes more advanced like that for a string quartet, that “conversation for four intelligent people” as Goethe put it.
Mozart’s first piano quartet is in the tragic key of G minor and was considered daringly modern by giving the strings equal importance to the piano. And it’s a big work. This is no light confection for after-dinner chit-chat accompaniment. The first movement, nearly a quarter-hour long, digs deep in its material, by turns dramatic and serious, the second is more relaxed and the last a rondo lighter in atmosphere. The members of the Mozart Piano Quartet display these wares with perfect poise and a sensitive ear to balance.
Paul Rivinius has a superb instrument and he coaxes some very beautiful sounds from it; those looking for a woodier sound will be surprised. His passage-work turned me green with envy, especially when combined with the quality of the delicacy he provides when necessary. The interplay with the strings has been carefully thought through judging by the result, and that result is indeed a conversation for four intelligent people including a pianist.
After this major work for piano quartet was completed, performed and published in 1785, the response was poor – the work was perceived as too difficult to listen to, and too difficult to play. Hoffmeister, the publisher, suggested to Mozart that he need not produce the further two quartets he had agreed to write if he did not wish to, and could keep the advance payment for them. The composer fortunately decided to go ahead with second piano quartet, less than a year later, this time in E flat major and less turbulent than its earlier sibling. Alas, the third piano quartet never materialised.
The Mozart Piano Quartet strike a careful course between the grandeur of the first movement and its serenity. The second movement comes over as lyrical and warm, and the last’s gavotte-like rhythm dances lightly. Sonics are excellent; the quartets were recorded in a generous acoustic and yet remain intimate. I listened in normal surround mode (five channel), though the disc is mastered for the 2+2+2 arrangement with front height speakers, described fully here.
These works have not been short of excellent recordings – Schnabel recorded the first with the Pro Arte in 1934, a fine reading which I wouldn’t be without. Nor would I be without Curzon and members of the Amadeus with some ripe and rich playing, nor perhaps Ranki and the Eder Quartet nor Paul Lewis and the Leopold String Trio with their fine Hyperion recording. However, I certainly would not like to be without this newcomer, a superb production all round, and with extremely fine multichannel sound to boot.
— Peter Joelson
