Ernest Bloch - Piano Quintets (Piers Lane; Goldner String Quartet)

Information

Composer: Ernest Bloch

• Piano Quintet No. 1
• Night
• Paysages
• Two Pieces for String Quartet
• Piano Quintet No. 2

Piers Lane, piano

Goldner String Quartet

    Dene Olding, violin

    Dimity Hall, violin

    Irina Morozova, viola

    Julian Smiles, cello

Date: 2007

Label: Hyperion

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Review

A fabulous CD this, easily the best recording of Bloch’s chamber music I’ve heard in years, and that in spite of two good couplings of the Quintets by the American Chamber Players (Koch – nla) and Iván Klánsky with the Kocian Quartet. The First Quintet, a product of the early 1920s, seems to combine the acerbic drive of middle-period Bartók with the kind of veiled sensuality one associates more with Chausson or Fauré. Bloch’s use of quarter-tones, aimed at intensifying the work’s already heightened emotional atmosphere, requires careful handling, and the Goldner Quartet make them sound both musically striking and entirely natural. If you need a sampling-point, try the finale’s opening, where the sense of urgency will hold you riveted. I’d still encourage readers to explore the old Alfredo Casella/Pro Arte set (Andante – nla), where tension levels are equally high though needless to say the gritty pre-war sound takes a bit of getting used to.

The real revelation here, for me, was the Second Piano Trio (1957), a work I hadn’t previously “felt” in quite the way I do now thanks to this remarkable performance. The language recalls the First Quintet’s stronger elements, with tone-rows this time rather than quarter-tones, though again their employment is musical rather than “political”. Amazing to think that this was Bloch’s last chamber work (he was already suffering from cancer when he wrote it), the combination of raw energy and mysticism suggesting the mind of a much younger man, much as Janácek’s late chamber music does. The Quintet’s quiet coda is rapturously beautiful and the blending of voices between Piers Lane and the Goldners simply could not be bettered. The short quartet bonuses suggest that a Goldner Bloch quartet cycle would be a good idea. But that’s one for the future; as for this current release, the music is truly wonderful, the playing entirely sympathetic and the sound perfectly balanced.

— Rob Cowan

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Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer known for blending post-Romantic and neoclassical styles with Jewish musical themes. He studied in Switzerland and Belgium, taught at the Geneva Conservatory, and moved to the U.S. in 1916. Bloch became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later led the San Francisco Conservatory. He taught at UC Berkeley until retiring in 1952. Bloch's compositions, influenced by Debussy, Mahler, and Ravel, include Schelomo, Baal Shem, Avodath Hakodesh, Concerto Grosso No. 1, and Israel Symphony, among others.

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Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. Born in London and grew up in Brisbane, he graduated with a Medal of Excellence from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where his teacher was Nancy Weir. Lane first came to prominence at the inaugural Sydney International Piano Competition in 1977, at which he was named Best Australian Pianist. Since 2007, he is the artistic director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music held annually in Townsville. Lane has an extensive discography on the Hyperion label and has also recorded for EMI, Decca, BMG, Lyrita and Unicorn-Khanchana.

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The Goldner String Quartet is an Australian string quartet formed in 1995 in honour of Richard Goldner, the founder of Musica Viva Australia. The quartet consists of Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, Irina Morozova and Julian Smiles, who all are members of the Australia Ensemble. The Goldners have played throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well in the UK, USA, Korea, Finland, France and Italy, and with artists such as Boris Berman, Ian Munro, Piers Lane, Daniel Adni, Malcolm Bilson, Brett Dean and Slava Grigoryan. In August 2023 the Goldner String Quartet announced that the 2024 season would be its last.

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