Elgar & Beach: Piano Quintets

Garrick Ohlsson (piano) & Takács Quartet

Amy Beach’s piano quintet proved a deservedly popular success in its early years. It makes a compelling—and surprising—match for Elgar’s own piano quintet: a late work contemporary with the cello concerto, and which inhabits the same emotional landscape.

Beach, A:
 Piano Quintet in F Sharp Minor Op. 67

Elgar:
 Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84

"The ensemble brings an extraordinary range and depth of sound to Beach’s closely-worked score…Ohlsson and the Takács Quartet are vividly alert to the [Elgar]’s sense of story…This is a performance every bit as imaginative and expressive as Elgar’s remarkable score, rich in contrast and daring but never overblown and always precise…This is in every respect an outstanding disc."
BBC Music Magazine - July 2020 *****

"[Beach's] Piano Quintet, the most widely performed of her chamber works...is a highly developed work which should be considered part of that canon of quintets led by Schumann and Brahms...This is highly accomplished writing and reveals Beach’s true imagination as a master of instrumental form...Ohlsson and the Takács are to be congratulated for the warmth of their interpretation and for their ability to encompass the challenging range of Elgar’s complex moods."
Gramophone Magazine - July 2020