The 1942 Schumann recording is, for British collectors at least, a far rarer bird than the Brahms: it never enjoyed LP reissue status in the domestic catalogues and has only recently surfaced on an (excellent) alternative Biddulph transfer. The performance itself is full of energy and felicitous touches, not least towards the end of the Scherzo where Busch intensifies the excitement with some hungry accelerandos. Serkin’s contribution is, generally speaking, lithe, clear-headed and rhythmically springy, and the string playing rich in sweetly curling portamento – although I have heard more seductive accounts of the viola-cello exchanges that constitute the first movement’s second subject (Martha Argerich’s electrifying live Nijmegen recording of 1994 with Nobuko Imai and Mischa Maisky – part of a two-disc set – is my current preference). The Brahms Piano Quintet dates from four years earlier and is marginally better recorded. Serkin’s performance is more supple than on his 1963 remake with the Budapest Quartet (CBS, 2/90 – nla, a sturdy account that includes the first-movement repeat omitted here), while the Busch Quartet exhibit impressive mastery of Brahms’s idiom. Melodies always sing and musical arguments are related with impressive tautness (rather in the style of Toscanini); furthermore, textures are never muddied, and the finale’s dangerous coda is played with great panache.
Pearl’s transfers fall pleasantly on the ear. Surfaces are relatively quiet, and subtly added ambience does not bring excessively intrusive noise reduction in its train. I did, however, regret that individual movements follow so closely on each other’s heels (virtually attacca in some cases) and one or two side-joins are squeezed just a little too tight (in Brahms’s Scherzo, for example). If pressured into choosing between this transfer of the Brahms and EMI’s on References (nla), I would probably choose the latter were it still available. In its absence, this is a notable instalment in what is fast proving an extremely valuable series.'