Leopold String Trio, Marc-André Hamelin - Brahms: The Piano Quartets (2006) CD-Rip

With the proliferation of more and more recording labels and still more ensembles getting the opportunity to record their work, it is obviously increasingly difficult to bring anything truly original when performing works from the standard repertoire. Unfortunately, this fact may lead to some questionable performance decisions in striving for originality. Such seems to be the case with the Leopold String Trio and Marc-André Hamelin and their performance of the Brahms piano quartets. The primary issue arises with regards to tempo selection. The fourth movement of the G minor quartet, marked Presto in the score, comes to a virtual stop in the middle of the movement, completely robbing this usually vivacious and forward-moving movement of any excitement or interest. Although the tempo is recovered by the end of the movement, this does little to repair the damage that was done. Conversely, some sections are so fast that the string players can't even get a good, deep sound out of their instruments. The first movement of the C minor quartet is extremely unstable -- the tempo fluctuates almost constantly for no apparent reason. This alone is likely to leave a bad taste in the mouths of listeners, but there are other problems as well. The intonation in the strings is as inconsistent as the tempo. Balance is also a major concern. There are frequent passages where the viola may as well not be playing because it simply cannot be heard. Listeners looking for a good collection of these four masterpieces of piano chamber music should definitely look elsewhere.