Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Schubert: Quintet and Lieder (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Schubert: Quintet and Lieder (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:12:04 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

In a characteristically imaginative move, the Quatuor Ebène complements Schubert’s sublime Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos (Gautier Capuçon joins the ensemble) with a group of his songs – sensitively arranged by the quartet’s cellist, Raphaël Merlin, and sung by German baritone Matthias Goerne, one of the world’s great interpreters of lieder.

In 2014 Erato released Schubert’s glorious ‘Trout’ Quintet, recorded live at Paris’s Salle Pleyel by members of Quatuor Ebène with nonagerian pianist Menahem Pressler. The French quartet – with a new viola-player, 24-year-old Adrien Boisseau and a distinguished guest cellist, Gautier Capuçon – now turns to another Schubert quintet, his final chamber work and one of his sublime masterpieces: the Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos in C major D956, often known simply as the Schubert Quintet. Its slow movement in particular, in which time seems to stands still, is a favourite with music-lovers.

LBUM OF THE WEEK: Sunday Times. “A striking new reading…convinces in the ‘symphonic’ breadth of the huge opening movement, the dreamlike raptness of the adagio and the fierceness of the scherzo. The concluding pages have rarely sounded more dramatic…”

**** Financial Times: “Their performance is more about probing the emotions swirling below. There is angst here, an almost fraught urgency to much of the playing, suggestive of the inner feelings of the composer in the last months of his life…An unusual coupling brings baritone Matthias Goerne in a selection of Schubert songs arranged for the halo of a string accompaniment.”

Tracklist:
01. Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon – String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: I. Allegro ma non troppo (20:00)
02. Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon – String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: II. Adagio (15:13)
03. Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon – String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: III. Scherzo & Trio (09:52)
04. Quatuor Ébène, Gautier Capuçon – String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: IV. Allegretto (09:49)
05. Quatuor Ébène, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Die Götter Griechenlands, D. 677 (04:19)
06. Quatuor Ébène, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531 (02:04)
07. Quatuor Ébène, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Der Jüngling und der Tod, D. 545 (03:37)
08. Quatuor Ébène, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Atys, D. 585 (04:18)
09. Quatuor Ébène, Matthias Goerne, Laurène Durantel – Der liebliche Stern, D. 861 (02:47)

Personnel:
Quatuor Ebène:
Pierre Colombet violin
Gabriel Le Magadure violin
Adrien Boisseau viola
Raphaël Merlin cello
Gautier Capuçon cello (1-4)
Matthias Goerne baryton (5-9)
Laurène Durantel double-bass (5-9)

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