The Nash Ensemble - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Quartet, Op.16; String Quintet, Op.104; 'Eyeglass' Duo (2009)

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The Nash Ensemble - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Quartet, Op.16; String Quintet, Op.104; 'Eyeglass' Duo (2009)

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With the vast majority of Beethoven's works being frequently performed as part of the modern canon, we can sometimes forget those few pieces that often lie dormant. This Hyperion album, featuring the Nash Ensemble, celebrates three such works. The program opens with the Op. 104 C minor String Quintet, which keen listeners will instantly recognize as a transcription of the Op. 1/3 Piano Trio. The quintet version came into being as a sort of "oneupsmanship" after an amateur composer submitted his own transcription. Beethoven, who accurately assessed that he could do better, rewrote it and published it as Op. 104. If you're not already familiar with the piano trio, you may never know that the string quintet began its life in a different genre. Beethoven's writing is highly idiomatic while preserving almost the entire original score of the trio. The Nash Ensemble's performance is equally refined and stunning, making it all the more curious why this piece is not performed more frequently. The program's intermezzo is the so-called "Eyeglass" duo for viola and cello, a light-hearted, charming work composed for an amateur cellist friend of Beethoven. Here again, the Nash Ensemble's insight and pervasive energy infuse a great deal of life and interest into this often forgotten work. The final work on the program is the one where it could perhaps be said that Beethoven is not at his best. The Piano Quartet, Op. 16, is another transcription Beethoven made, this time of his Wind Quintet of the same opus. The writing here has less impact and intensity than previous works, but is still worth being familiar with. Throughout the album, the Nash Ensemble's execution is both technically superior and musically informed, making for a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.

Review by Mike D. Brownell, Allmusic.com

The two main works here are both arrangements of works more familiar in a different guise, and they vividly illustrate the difference between hackwork and genius.

The string quintet transcription of Beethoven’s C minor Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3 isn’t really his at all: he simply amended an arrangement that had been submitted to him, raising it, as he sarcastically said, ‘from the most abject misery to some degree of respectability’. The string writing is still quite awkward, but Beethoven’s fingerprints are noticeable particularly in the slow movement, where a new rhythmically alert viola part lends the final variation a delicate scherzo-like character.

The Piano Quartet is a very different affair. This is unadulterated Beethoven – his own transcription of his Op. 16 Quintet for piano and winds, with the wind instruments replaced by a string trio. Beethoven left the piano part unchanged, but he vastly improved on the original wind writing: not only did he bind the two opposing forces together much more closely, adding accompanying string contributions, but he also elaborated some of the melodic lines, allowing them greater expressive flexibility. The result deserves to be heard far more frequently, and the players of the Nash Ensemble do it proud.

Theirs is a notably autumnal view of this early piece of Beethoven, but the performance has great warmth. The addition of a highly polished account of the Eyeglass duet by Lawrence Power and Paul Watkins makes the whole package an attractive proposition.

Review by Misha Donat, BBC Music Magazine

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The Nash Ensemble - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Quartet, Op.16; String Quintet, Op.104; 'Eyeglass' Duo (2009)

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The Nash Ensemble - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Quartet, Op.16; String Quintet, Op.104; 'Eyeglass' Duo (2009)

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The Nash Ensemble - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Quartet, Op.16; String Quintet, Op.104; 'Eyeglass' Duo (2009)

Close