The New York Concert

Dvorˇák: Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Op. 81; Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1; Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K478

Evgeny Kissin (piano);

Emerson String Quartet

DG 483 6574 98:43 mins (2 discs) Recorded live during April last year in New York’s Carnegie Hall at the end of a short tour, the pairing of Evgeny Kissin with the Emerson Quartet would appear to be a musical match made in heaven, as both are revered above all for their clear-sighted precision and textural clarity. In theory, one might have expected the

Mozart to be almost a breeze, yet I couldn’t help the sensation of two slightly tangential interpretative trajectories. The predominantly 19th-century rhetorical perspective comes perhaps as no surprise – this is unashamedly ‘big’ Mozart – yet whereas Kissin for the most part tends towards Classical sparkle, the Emerson players adopt a more sturdy, Beethovenian soundworld. The result is never less than thoroughly expert and engaging, although I would have welcomed a more profound sense of musical give-and-take.

Fauré is amongst the most challenging and elusive of composers, even if the C minor Quartet is an early work which unashamedly betrays its indebtedness to Brahms (especially) and Schumann. Here the players sound more naturally at home with each other – Kissin’s pointillist sonic profiling finds a more empathic partner in the Emerson’s cantabile espressivo, especially when the music surges aloft in the finale. Finest of all is the Dvo ák Quintet, which for once isn’t rushed off its feet in a desire to inject an allpurpose sense of outdoor freshness. Far from projecting Dvo ák as the ‘Mr Smiley’ of Slavic Romanticism, these highly distinguished players go between and behind the notes to reveal an altogether more complex musical personality. Julian Haylock PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★