Search - Schubert, Juilliard Quartet, Greenhouse :: Franz Schubert: Quintet, D. 956 (C major)

From the review in Gramophone

Record Collector | Mons, Belgium | 08/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The performance of this great work is warm and flexible, and the ensemble with Bernard Greenhouse (until recently a member of the Beaux Arts Trio) as the extra cellist is admirable.

I liked the way the long first movement's exposition repeat is observed and the tenderness of the second subject as well as its slightly more relaxed tempo, which is convincingly integrated into the whole. The development rightly has a glimpse of mortality too, and so indeed has the disturbingly grim coda, thus giving a truly late-Schubertian expressive balance. The opening and closing melody of the ineffable Adagio has a wide tonal palette serving expressive depth and a quietly purposeful gait that neither falters nor hurries: here the present issue has the advantage over the Lindsay Quartet and Douglas Cummings on ASV (who though fine elsewhere seem to overdo things at more than two and a half minutes slower), an advantage shared by the able and perceptive Alban Berg Quartet with Heinrich Schiff on EMI, who choose a similar time around the 14'30'' mark. And if I did briefly wonder whether the Andante sostenuto trio of the scherzo was just a bit too held back in this performance by the Juilliard, I like very much the blend of light and dark that these skilful and experienced players bring to this masterpiece.""