Here is an apt coupling of two works from Brahms's glorious last creative phase. The American artists play both works with an appropriate air of ease and tranquillity, but in very whole-hearted fashion: their approach allows the composer's positive, mature expression of contentment and joy its full due, but the players see clearly too those passing moments when melancholy darkens Brahms's golden, autumnal vision.
None of these interpretative insights can register fully if not built on a strong base, and in the first movement of the String Quintet there is a particularly satisfying sense of rhythmic strength and impetus. A balance between the expression of inward, intimate thoughts and joy springing from within is satisfyingly struck here and indeed throughout the work as a whole. The five artists show a remarkable sense of sympathy and rapport, and their playing, set in a fairly close but resonant recording, is of a very high standard technically.
Qualities of sensitivity and insight are apparent too in the Clarinet Quintet. David Shifrin is a highly accomplished artist, with a beautiful quality of tone, but here I do feel that basic strength and structure are rather neglected in favour of expressive warmth. Tempos tend to be on the slow side, and in the first movement particularly, the music lacks a proper anchor and loses shape and coherence. In the slow movement the pulse is not entirely clear, and although there is plenty of spontaneity and richness of expression the music seems episodic and lacking in purpose just a little. The Allegretto is played in delightful fashion however, and the finale's variations are given a tauter strength and vitality.
Thea King's version of the Clarinet Quintet on Hyperion yields nothing to the American performance in terms of atmosphere and spontaneous feeling, but she and the Gabrieli Quartet preserve the music's pulse and argument much more effectively. In fact theirs is a quite outstanding performance in every way, and is beautifully recorded. Collectors who prefer a more objective, classical and straightforward approach may turn to the very expert Alfred Boskovsky and his Viennese colleagues in their Decca performance, which dates from 1962 but is preserved in very good sound.'