Piers Lane; Goldner String Quartet - Arensky & Taneyev: Piano Quintets

Two chamber masterpieces from nineteenth-century Russia, performed by Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet.Taneyev has been known as the �Russian Brahms� and this epithet is particularly apposite when considering his Piano Quintet in G minor, especially as regards both its instrumental writing and its intellectual passion. Composed in 1911, this massive work bids fair for the accolade of the greatest work in the Russian piano-chamber repertoire before Shostakovich�s Piano Quintet of 1940. Only the extravagance of its technical demands can explain its failure to establish itself in the standard repertoire.Arensky�s Piano Quintet of 1900 is less monumental and less flamboyant, though not exactly short of fireworks, especially in the piano writing. It is a deeply attractive and enjoyable work�and equally little-known on the concert platform.