According to the press release from Peter Christ of Crystal Records, the Westwood Quintet have now finished its recording of all 24 of Anton Reicha’s exceptional and trend-setting works. This current issue is listed as Volume 11, and is the sixth in the series, so we are halfway through with the remaining to be issued at the rate of two or three a year.
Once you get to the sixth in a series it becomes increasingly difficult to say something new about the performances. Suffice it to say that if you have been happy with the Westwood’s traversals of these large-scale wonders you will not be disappointed here. There is a lot of scholarship that has gone into this series, with the results available at the website of the International Double Reed Society (free to members), and the resulting performance edition should stand for a while. As I have said before, the only real competition in the complete quintet sweepstakes is the Albert Schweitzer Woodwind Quintet on CPO, and the contrasts with that fine group are quite large, the Westwood being more big-boned, lean, and (dare I say it) American in their sound than the fatter and richer Schweitzers, while the latter are also more literal in their approach, which has its plusses and minuses. I don’t know if I could choose between them; probably the Westwood for its more considered approach, as the Schweitzer too often sounds like it’s just blowing through some of the pieces.
And to be honest this volume contains one piece that to me is not as interesting as the others. I refer to the E-flat No. 3, which sounds more like parlor music than many of the other quintets Reicha penned. In its favor are a certain playfulness and rascally mood that nonetheless speak highly of the composer’s craft, while not all that ingratiating to the ear. But the wonderful E-minor returns us to those catchy motives that Reicha so often excelled at and the second movement Variations are simply a stunning example of what can be done with the form.
That’s it in a nutshell. Any serious listener has to become acquainted with the great variety of Reicha’s extraordinary works, and this is a good a place to start as any.
— Steven Ritter
