Search - Vanbrugh Quartet :: MAY: String Quartet / FLEISCHMANN: Piano Quintet

Fine performances of moderately interesting music

G.D. | Norway | 01/18/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Frederick May (1911-1985) studied with Vaughan Williams and Egon Wellesz, and there is very little distinctively Irish about his string quartet. Completed in 1936, the work reflects rather continental trends of the time and May was, for instance, not afraid to venture into serialism. Apparently too much for the musical establishment in his home country back in those days, there is however little in here to scare off contemporary listeners; it is a substantial and relatively interesting work, however, rigorously constructed and expertly laid out for the instruments.



The thematic material throughout derives from the very introduction to the first movement, leading into an urgent but intimate first movement and, without break, to a succinct, terse and craggy scherzo. The work is rounded off by a finely wrought, appeasing and serene Lento espressivo which contains several fine ideas. The Vanbrugh quartet provides a very convincing performance - spirited, vital playing of no mean technical accomplishment and thorough understanding of the idiom, it seems. This is, then, an interesting work, but it is hardly mandatory listening and I won't claim that it can really withstand comparison with the best quartets of its age.



Aloys Fleischmann (1910-1992) wrote his altogether more conservative piano quintet in 1938. It is an ambitious, expressive work with the four movements exhibiting very different moods and styles. The opening is conservatively romantic, but soon enough develops into more harmonic complexity but at the same time acquiring a very Irish touch that becomes all the more apparent later in the work. As a whole, the quintet is perhaps a little too episodic, and while it contains a rich array of ideas, none of them are quite memorable or strong enough to encourage repeated listening. Nothing to complain about with respect to the performances, however, which are lively, colorful and technically assured. An overall worthwhile release, then, certainly worth the modest outlay, but not one that is in any way going to change someone's life."