Search - Faure, Fine Arts Quartet, Ortiz :: Faure: Piano Quintets

Glorious, Subtle Playing of these Glorious, Subtle Works

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Fauré Piano Quintets are not as well known as they should be. Indeed, that may be true of much of Fauré's music. It tends to be elusive, sometimes cryptic, sometimes hermetic in its construction and its appeal. But once one gets inside Fauré sound-world, one is won over. I've often said that I can recognize a piece as being by Fauré within the first two bars because his idiosyncratic use of harmony is so identifiable. That certainly is true of the Quintets. (It has always puzzled me that Fauré used to be referred to as the French Brahms. The only thing they have in common, as far as I can tell, is a predilection for using second inversion triads in the bass.) Although written fifteen years and more apart (1891/1906; 1921), the two pieces are very different but also very Fauré-esque. The Second is like a distillation, a pentimento of the First.



Both works are given subtle and musical performances here by the Fine Arts Quartet and pianist Cristina Ortiz. The Fine Arts Quartet, founded in 1946 and long resident at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, have a well-deserved reputation for music-making of the highest sort. I have positively reviewed their set of the Schumann Quartets Schumann: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 and the Mendelssohn String Quintets with violist Danilo Rossi Mendelssohn: String Quintets Nos. 1 & 2. Cristina Ortiz is a Brazilian pianist whose recording years ago of the Stenhammar concertos brought me to that poorly known Swedish composer, one who has since become an obsessive favorite of mine. To her, then, I'm grateful for that, as well as for her subtly integrated playing on this marvelous set.



Previously my benchmark recordings for the Fauré Piano Quintets had been those of Domus Fauré: Piano Quintets, but this Fine Arts/Ortiz set is easily its equal, and it's at budget price. If you are in the market for the Fauré piano quintets, snap it up.



Scott Morrison"