Piano Concertos 1 & 2 (Versions for Piano Sextet)
Emmanuel Despax Piano
Chineke! Chamber Ensemble
Signum Classics SIGCD700
Full Price
The Review
The main appeal of these chamber versions of Chopin’s concertos, for piano and string quintet (including double bass) is that it makes them available to venues that cannot fit or afford a full orchestra.
For that purpose they are engaging and would slip well into the programmes of smaller festivals. As accounts of concertos, though, I am not really convinced.
If the problem with them in full orchestral panoply is that the orchestra is made anodyne by the virtuosic piano writing, the same is even more the case when it is reduced to five string instruments. The ability of wind and brass to cut through the textures is sorely missed.
At the start of each movement, the strings give us some gentle introductions that settle the listener down for a proper string quintet but the moment the piano bursts in, they are drowned out. The balance is better in the lovely slow movements of both concertos, where genuine dialogue has space to develop and the fragility of the writing becomes very touching without being sentimental, but for the most part in the outer movements the pianist treats the quintet as spear carriers. It has always been the complaint against these works that the orchestral parts merely provide a backdrop for the piano’s monologues and these few bashful strings just emphasise the problem.
None of those issues are the fault of the performers, though. Despax is one of the most intelligent interpretors of Chopin around at the moment and Chi-chi Nwanoku’s Chineke! quintet is a superb foil, always attentive, always certain to pick up on Despax’s phrasing and lend it more shape.
If hearing this live, I would go away delighted. On record, though, it feels like one of those minimal plates of food, all tiny squirts of gel and emulsified anchovy served on a drizzle of spinach oil, that trendy chefs produce on telly. One needs a hearty meal after.
SM