Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34

“Here is a glorious set of performances that find its way onto somebody’s Pick of the Year list (certainly mine). The immaculate and wise Tokyo String Quartet are joined by two American soloists, clarinetist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, in pristine and moving performances … an important and revealing new recording of two great and very different masterpieces.” The Herald (Glasgow), 4th November 2012

“Nakamatsu and the Tokyo String Quartet are on fine form … playing with an effortless command and sophistication that reveal details of texture and articulation … [a] beautifully played, radiantly engineered performance that is especially alluring in the SACD’s surround sound.” The Strad, December 2012

“both works receive performances that understand and warmly identify with Brahms's intentions: the playing is expressive and there is an obvious love of the music throughout. The Tokyo Quartet players, in both, are a rock-steady basis for the ensemble, and the two soloists...temper virtuosity with a fine sense of their role as an integral part of a chamber group.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 ****

“the extraordinary homogeneity of sound that comes from a complete quartet of matching instruments is most apparent [in the Piano Quintet]...[the Clarinet Sonata] does occasionally suffer from being a little muscled along. However, the beauty of the blend is so total that it is not difficult to put that to the back of your mind and allow yourself to be mesmerised by the overall perfection” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“This is a fine version of this masterpiece [Clarinet Quintet].” International Record Review, December 2012

“What lovely music this is and how elegantly both pieces are played here” MusicWeb International, 12th February 2013

“Both works are beautifully played, the instruments are perfectly blended and every note is carefully weighed and placed” Classic CD

“Anssi Karttunen of the Zebra Trio has done a heroic job in attemptin to recreate the work in its original guise...Although there are some moment of speculative intonation, these vivid and clearly recorded performances offer fascinating perspectives on some very familiar music.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ***

“This is the kind of disc that makes the most jaded listener sit up straight and pay attention: marvellous music, compellingly performed and beautifully produced...The result is as exciting a disc of chamber music as I have heard this year.” MusicWeb International, June 2012

“the Piano Quintet in F minor Op 34 had begun life as a quintet for strings alone...What's recorded here is a speculative reconstruction of that original quintet by Anssi Karttunen, cellist of the Zebra Trio; it's paired here with an all-strings version of the Clarinet Quintet Op 115” The Guardian, 5th July 2012 ****

“The C minor Quartet requires playing of the utmost passion if its complex textures are not to sound clogged, and this is what it receives here, though the delicacy and affection the players bring to the two middle movements are also admirable qualities too seldom heard. Akiko Yamamoto proves to be an ideal partner in the Piano Quintet, which achieves an extraordinary sense of drive and emotional abandon in the Finale.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 ****

“A variable success. Whilst the Alban Berg Quartet perform with beauty of tone an incisive ensemble, Leonskaja lacks real charm in the Schubert and her Brahms fails to deliver.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 ***

“This is the finest recording of Brahms’s Piano Quintet since the electrifying Eschenbach/Amadeus version … Stephen Hough and the Takács Quartet push the music about as far as it can go … one senses from the start that [Hough] is really fired up and the Takács follow him every inch of the way with playing of beguiling tonal sophistication and thrilling intensity … this is an exceptional account of a truly exceptional masterwork … the Takács gently caress and cosset this extraordinary music with a glowing sensitivity and insight … highly recommended, especially to those who normally find Brahms a composer they admire rather than fall in love with” International Record Review

“These new versions from Stephen Hough and the Takács Quartet strike me as even better, and in more modern sound … in both Quintet and Quartet the performers give bright, focused, alert, almost ‘classical’ readings, very different from the ponderous brown studies that marked Brahms performances of yesteryear … this is an altogether recommendable release” BBC Music Magazine

“a model for what chamber music should be” The Guardian

“In the Brahms Second Quartet the Takács fins a most appealing lightness of touch. … the Piano Quintet… has fire and passion aplenty… There's a feeling of coming together of ideas, with these artists… sparking off one another in a very unstudio-ish way.” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008

“In both Quintet and Quartet the performers give bright, focused, alert, almost 'classical' readings…” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****

“In the Brahms Second Quartet the Takács find a most appealing lightness of touch. They reveal anew the extraordinarily imaginative way in which the work begins, and breathe air into the intricate textures which precede the vacillating second theme. There's an absolute unanimity to their playing, but a fetching liveliness too. Compared to such groups as the Alban Berg, who revel in the lushness of Brahms's writing, the Takács are more febrile and transparent. Their third movement creeps in, skittering, but there's no lack of sweetness of tone when required. And the fugal section has a spring in its step. Brahms isn't all seriousness, they remind us.
The other major selling-point of this disc is the Piano Quintet, for which the Takács are joined by Stephen Hough. There's nothing cosy about this latest reading, which has fire and passion aplenty, and the recording places Hough pleasingly within the overall texture rather than unduly spotlighting him. There's a feeling of coming together of ideas, with these artists – masters of colour all of them – sparking off one another in a very unstudio-ish way. And throughout, Hough's virtuosity makes light of Brahms's unforgiving textures.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“With an almost ideal balance between piano and strings, the variety of articulation in their playing brings a marvellous textural variety to the full-blooded writing in the outer movements of the Brahms. …the performances… can be confidently recommended as among the finest modern recordings of both works.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 *****

“Leif Ove Andsnes has an uncanny knack of revealing the inner truth of the music he plays without recourse to excessive gimmickry. He also has exquisite taste when it comes to choosing his chamber music collaborators, as this pairing of the two cornerstones of the piano quintet repertoire demonstrates.
Schumann's Quintet has become the most famous of his chamber works, with its boundless energy and melodic generosity. Andsnes and the Artemis let the notes speak for themselves, never lingering too lovingly on mere details. It's an approach that serves the work well, and an ideal instrumental balance helps illuminate the work's compelling textures throughout.
It's a similar story in the Brahms. Andsnes and the Artemis are alive to all the possibilities in the pregnant opening phrases of each movement and maintain the intensity of the impetuous passion implicit in this youthful music. The Brahms hasn't fared as well on disc as the Schumann and this recording of it can certainly take its place among the finest. As for the Schumann, it's undoubtedly up there with the best.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Andsnes, whose playing is full of personality, and the Artemis Quartet, who have a fine presence, give a magisterial account of the Brahms and are no less compelling in the Schumann.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“…it's one of the quartet's last recordings, but the legendary luminosity of sound is still there, as is the beautiful precision, perfectly complemented by Pollini's clarity and control of touch. But it's by no means a cold, clinical performance - the first movement is powerfully dramatic, the Andante expansively lyrical, and the start of the Scherzo has never sounded darker or more mysterious.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2005