According to Julian Rachlin in the notes, these performers, while an aggregate lot, have been playing together for some time now, and it really shows on this live recording done at the Musikverein in Vienna. The Piano Quintet appeared right after the composer’s sixth symphony and was brought to life in 1940. The saucy audacity of the piece’s final movement is matched only by the gorgeous and lyrical somberness of the second movement fugue, the single longest movement in the work. I was surprised at how uniform and cohesive this ensemble is, very Russian sounding despite the presence of others, but most of all innately attuned to the jocular sarcasm of the work and its ineffable beauties. A super reading.
The Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano are taken and arranged from other Shostakovich works: Prelude (the Gadfly film score); Gavotte (The Human Comedy incidental music); Elegy (“Panorama of Paris” form Human Comedy); Waltz (unknown piece of Shostakovich); and Polka (Limpid Stream ballet). This works are quite lovely and intimate, showing a penchant for melody and sensuous nostalgia that you won’t hear in the symphonies, for example.
The Piano Trio No. 1 is also very exceptional. I gave a rave to the Trio Paian for their reading on Coviello of the three complete trios (plus music by Paul Juon) not too long ago, though I cannot now say that their performance is any better than this one. They have SACD sound and this one does not, but the sound is still excellent in every way, the nervous patrons of the Musikverein on their best behavior, and hardly would one know they were there if not for the opening and closing applause (superfluous and not useful).
There are many excellent recordings of the Piano Quintet, and Maisky joins Martha Argerich on a wonderful EMI recording, and there are many others, but I believe that this excellently-recorded Onyx release gives quarter to none of them. If you are looking for a near-definitive version for your library, you can be confident that this one will fit the bill nicely.
— Steven Ritter