[3/16/2012] Preview: Souvenirs of two concerts -- intriguing chamber curiosities by Camille Saint-Saëns and Fritz Kreisler (continued)

Five youngsters from the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra of Chapel Hill, NC -- violinists Young-hun Kim and Taisuke Yasuda, violist Forrest Li, cellist Jacob Reed, and pianist Richard He -- play the searingly beautiful second-movement Andante sostenuto from Saint-Saëns' A minor (not major, as announced) Piano Quintet, Op. 14, in Raleigh, November 2009.

It's a shame the sound of this clip is so glaring, because the kids grapple honorably with this special movement. (It seems to end suddenly, because the movement is continuous with the following Presto.) There's a more polished performance (audio only) featuring Lithuanian pianist Edvinas Minkstimas, with string players not identified in the YouTube clips, who do sound kind of anonymous. I'm not sure they make a more persuasive case than our North Carolina kids for the stature of the piece; I'd be happy to have a recording of last night's performance by pianist Xiayin Wang and the Fine Arts Quartet. (Meanwhile I've got my eye on a two-CD Hyperion set of Saint-Saëns chamber music by our friends the normally ultra-trustworthy Nash Ensemble.

As it happens -- more connections! -- I see that the Fine Arts has recorded the Kreisler String Quartet for Naxos (along with world-premiere recordings of a quartet by another great violinist, Efrem Zimbalist, and of a work with chamber orchestra, Harmonies du soir, by yet another, the legendary Eugène Ysaÿe; available on CD and via download). I really do want to hear the Fine Arts version. Meanwhile, as promised, here is the jauntily irresistible finale from the recording made by the composer-plus-friends (assembled for these sessions).

KREISLER: String Quartet in A minor:
iv. Finale: Retrospection

"Kreisler String Quartet": Fritz Kreisler and Thomas Petre, violins; William Primrose, viola; Lauri Kennedy, cello. EMI, recorded April 1935


IN THIS WEEK'S SUNDAY SUNDAY CLASSICS POST --

More about these two intriguingly juxtaposed concerts, both of which I was glad I attended, but one of which gave me conspicuously more actual musical pleasure than the other.


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