Draeseke Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello & horn Op.48 - two recordings!

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from cpo:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/felix-draeseke-quintett-op-48-fuer-klavier-horn-streichtrio/hnum/5892047
Wonder what the coupling will be?

..and also from TYXArt:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/kammermusik/hnum/5810085
Coupling: Draeseke's Clarinet Sonata and two works (Romanze; Adagio) for horn and piano.

This is marketing madness!!

[chill319]

That's an unusual ensemble. Can anyone think of any other work for those resources?

One suggestion for a companion piece might be Emil Kreuz's 1900 Prize Quintet for horn and string quartet, Op. 49. But that might be a stretch even for CPO.

[Alan Howe]

This work is a masterpiece of the first order in which the horn is integrated into the texture rather than being accorded the sort of soloistic role that one might perhaps expect. Excerpts from the existing (excellent) MDG recording are availble here (tracks 5-8):
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Felix-Draeseke-1835-1913-Quintett-op-48-f-KlavierHornStreichtrio/hnum/7649861

[eschiss1]

Kahn's op.54 quintet (clarinet instead of viola) might work though? (And looking @ IMSLP, Baußnern wrote a quintet for clarinet, horn violin cello & piano in the 1890s.)

[Alan Howe]

I didn't read the blurb properly (perhaps they've only just added it): the coupling is the String Quintet in F, Op.77. This is a major release.

[chill319]

...the coupling is the String Quintet in F, Op.77.

Oh, excellent!

[eschiss1]

Agreed (even if I already have a recording of it and matesic's rendering of it too.) I hope this one sounds better than either (the Alan Krueck's AK-Coburg chamber music recordings were really high on performance and musical content but cavernously low (the quintets and cello sonata CDs, at least) on recording/acoustic values if listened to with at all good headphones/etc. ...)

[Alan Howe]

The TYXart recording arrived today. All I can say is that, if you value great chamber music, then this is for you. Draeseke's Quintet is truly a thing of wonder - absolutely typical of the composer, but embued with a fabulous warmth of utterance that ought to propel it into the standard repertoire. 37+ minutes of sheer joy. And no, it's nothing like Brahms...

[eschiss1]

The TYXArt recording is on the new releases list today when subscribers open the mobile app for Naxos Music Library.  A lovely listen yes. Right now because I should be rushing I'm listening to the clarinet sonata, even though I have the AKCoburg recording (and even though the work exists in yet another recording.) Noticeably different from the AKCoburg recording here and there- I thought maybe Moraguès and Triendl were working from the original score whereas maybe the recording I have might have been working from the new edition- but there I see on the cover... TYXArt: "Joachim-Wollenweber-Edition". So -- hrm! (Well, not Walter-Wollenweber, but I still assume it means, working from the new corrected editions sponsored by the IDS.)
Anycase, first listen response to the new recording of the clarinet sonata, quite positive... though I won't say that I prefer it to the recording I'm used to. (Or that I necessarily don't, not based on just one listen )


It occurs to me that I haven't even heard the piano quintet, or the horn & piano works. I'm not sure I've heard a Draeseke chamber work I haven't liked yet, and most of them, I find I love and end up listening to repeatedly (and earwormishly &c) (I -think- the recording with Schumann's quartet may also be on NML, but I'm not quite sure- I of course listen to that too. And the cpo CD of lieder, etc., later today, with the booklet. Hrm. But back to this recording... thanks for pointing it out, and once I've given it at least a few listenings, will also add it to wishlist @ Amazon...)

IMHO, sometimes his chamber music is "something like" Schubert and others (especially the A major string quintet, especially its first movement?), but not in a close derivative annoying way; one means to suggest a frame of reference. This or that _will_ remind one of someone else, there were no vacuums (originality per se is overrated.)

[eschiss1]

Listening to the F major string quintet (miscalled piano quintet by NML) in the new cpo recording. Better recording quality than on AKCoburg, at least as good a performance, wonderful piece (that much I already knew. The first movement's ecstatic main theme is, I think, really something* when performers allow it to breathe; the second movement is played very rhythmically and texturally flexibly and responsively in this new recording - as it needs to be...)

*Ok, not the most helpful description...

[Alan Howe]

Oh, I don't know. Love your enthusiasm...