Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57[a]; Suite of Romances (Seven Romances) on Poems of Alexander Blok, op. 127[b].
Members of the Esbjerg Ensemble: Ulrich Staerk (piano), Sakari Tepponen (violin)[a], Niels Christian Ollgard (violin), Michel Camille (viola)[a], Alexei Kalatchev (cello)[a], Dorothea Wolff (cello)[b]; Nina Pavlovski (soprano)[b].
Classico CLASSCD 273. -D. TT 56:43.
Recorded Mantziusgarden Concert Hall, Denmark, 31 March - 2 April 1998[a]; 26 - 28 May 1998[b].

A much gloomier recital of the Seven Blok Romances than the one on Hungaroton comes from soprano Nina Pavlovski with members of the Esbjerg Ensemble, a 12-person international group based in Denmark. Pavlovski took private tuition with Galina Vishnevskaya, who premièred this work with Rostropovich, Oistrakh and Vainberg, and Pavlovski's shrieking oratory will sound familiar to anyone who has heard the première. That recording appeared in 1998 on BMG Melodiya, coupled with historic recordings of Satires, op. 109, Shostakovich's orchestration of Musorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, and Prokofiev's Five Poems by Anna Akhmatova (74321 53237 2). Revelation released the première of the Suite the same year, coupled with Symphony No. 14 (RV10101; deleted).

Be warned that Pavlovski, like Vishnevskaya, is not easy to listen to in this work, her shrill voice setting one's teeth aquiver in Gamayun, The Storm and Music. There is also little affection in Pavlovski's voice in We Were Together, a feature that arguably is called for as a foil to the nervy string writing in this movement. Nevertheless, her tone works perfectly in Hidden Signs, over which an icy hush falls. If you are indeed looking for a bracing experience, you would do better with the present performance than the one from Maria Aszodi and the Bartos Trio.

The Esbjerg players deliver a similarly sombre reading of the Piano Quintet. Sorrow and regret are never far away in this 1940 score, though, as Ian MacDonald has noted, the work's ironic qualities are usually underplayed by Western performers. Such criticism does not apply to the Esbjerg Ensemble's dark shading of each movement.

Hearing the quintet played this way reveals that Communist functionary Moisey Grinberg's criticism of this work's nomination for the Stalin Prize - "This is music that does not connect with the life of the people" - was perilously perceptive. In the Esbjergs' hands, the first, second and fourth movements are undeniably mournful, with an intensity best described as reverent. Even the third movement, Scherzo, is not allowed to fly free. Thus, what a magical ending it is, when, in the closing bars of the Finale, the blinds are finally pulled up and sunshine streams in.

Sensitively played and clearly recorded, these performances are decidedly worth hearing.

W. Mark Roberts
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DSCH No. 13.
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