There is a handful of
timeless classical masterpieces (or perhaps, more accurately, a
basketful). In the hand – or basket – is Schubert's C major
string quintet, D 956, one of the very last works Schubert lived to
write. With this work alone Schubert earns his place at the top table
with Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. It's a work I have loved since the
1950s; it's evergreen and one can never, ever become tired of
listening to it.
I have eight recordings
of the work, including with such luminaries as Casals, Heifetz, and
the Amadeus Quartet (the version with which I grew up in the 1950s on
an old LP). All older versions and rivals are, however, completely
swept aside for me by the Pavel Haas Quartet (four Czechs, with a
German-Japanese second cellist). The quartet plays the music with a
passion a long way from Alt Wien, Gemütlichkeit and all that
Viennese stuff. This is great music in the raw, a little like
Beethoven's Große Fuge, with no holds barred and no prisoners taken.
Recorded in Prague only last year, it is already one of the Great
Recordings of the Century, in my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment