Review: Schubert Ensemble

The rapport between the five members of the London-based Schubert Ensemble is so faultless and so perfectly balanced that it verges on the telepathic.

Their programme contained two very different masterpieces of the piano quintet genre by Shostakovich and Elgar, where they exhibited the ideal mix of meticulous preparation and that sense of playing with complete spontaneity.

Both works are symphonic in their proportions and powerful expressed emotions. Shostakovich’s volatile and enigmatic score was played with an uncommonly wide dynamic range underpinned with spotless string intonation, even in the upper stratospheres of Simon Blendis’s leading violin.

It also makes so many demands of the piano, that at times is not far from a concerto, and while I would have wished for a better sounding instrument, William Howard, added the full quota of brittle brilliance.

Passion burned in the intense account of Elgar’s quintet, a work that came in his later life, and at the end of the First World War, where his yearning for times past reach boiling point in the finale. Douglas Paterson’s viola and the cello of Jane Salmon brought redolent warmth to the long flowing melodies.

Sandwiched between them was a recent work from Anthony Powers, Nightsong, a piece full of interesting ideas and sounds that will surely find itself a place in the piano quartet repertoire.