Four of the best for Brahms

CD Review
Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor / Schumann's Fantasiestrücke
Argerich / Kremer / Bashmet / Maisky ****
DG

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The Times
Ivan Hewett

Chamber music has always been the hardest area of classical music to sell. There is a perception that it is forbidding and abstract in comparison with orchestral music. In an effort to overcome this barrier, record companies are playing the 'star' ticket. This new recording from DG, which has four big-name soloists, is case in point.

It seems like a winning idea, but is actually quite risky. In chamber music what counts is not beiong a flamboyant individual; it's listening to the other players and knowing how they're likely to respond. This is why the real stars of chamber music are the groups that have been playing together for years. The best ensembles have an empathy and spontaneous ebb and flow born of familiarity; and when soloists first collaborate, their giant egos sometimes get in the way.

This CD certainly has all the danger signs. Martha Argerich is one of the most brilliant pianists alive, but she is often wilfully eccentric. Yuri Bashmet is even more unpredictable, with an alarming tendency to 'wing it' rather than actually learn the music beforehand. Misha Maisky is a cellist of great individuality but, in my experience, has a slightly wobbly technique. As for Gidon Kremer, no violinist divides opinion more sharply; I know distinguished violin professors who shudder at the mere mention of his name.

The idea that this stack of wild cards could play a straight hand seems improbable. Amazingly, though, they sound like a seasoned chamber group. The very first bars tell you that you are in for something special, with the magesterial opening of Brahms' Piano Quartet given just the right suppleness by Argerich. The composer's scoring can be uncomfortably thick and heavy, but this quartet sound wonderfully clear and incisive. And they produce an astonishing range of colours, especially in the Intermezzo, where the piano and the string trio sound like two ghosts in mournful dialogue. Most impressive of all is the final passage, which is performed with an almost inbelievable energy and virtuosity. For Schumann's Fantasiestrücke, meanwhile, the players find a completely different tone: warm, nostalgic and impetuous.

The album is marred by the engineer's determination to lighten Brahms' naturally heavy sound. It works to a point, but at the cost of making it seem unreal. That aside, this is a wonderful CD.