Fierce commitment breathes life into forgotten quintets
The Strad Issue: October 2025
Description: Fierce commitment breathes life into forgotten quintets
Musicians: Peter Donohoe (piano) I Musicanti/Leon Bosch (double bass)
Works: Godfrey: Piano Quintet. Hodgson: Piano Quintet no.1. McCabe: Sam Variations. Walthew: Phantasy Quintet
Catalogue number: SOMM RECORDINGS SOMMCD0707
Save perhaps for one name, it’s unlikely you’ll have heard of the composers on this deeply rewarding, well-filled disc. Indeed, pianist Peter Donohoe and the string foursome of I Musicanti, directed by bassist Leon Bosch, have done some serious public service in resurrecting these little-known but thoroughly distinctive British piano quintets from the early 20th century.
Strictly speaking, Percy Godfrey’s quintet comes from a year earlier – 1899 – and betrays the strong influence of Brahms, but it’s an effective, memorable piece all the same, from the urgent rhythms of its second-movement scherzo to its good-natured finale, which sometimes nods affectionately to salon music.
Carlisle-born Ivor Hodgson illustrates four Derbyshire pubs in his First Piano Quintet, among which ‘The Quiet Woman’ – remembering a local figure whose head was cut off by her husband because of her ‘chattering’ – gets a suitably grotesque account of its intense, churning music.
Richard Walthew’s 1912 Phantasy Quintet updates Elizabethan consort music for the early 20th century, transforming it into a sophisticated, deeply passionate piece with sensitive contributions from Donohoe.
John McCabe is probably the most recognisable name here: his Sam Variations offers the disc’s most modernistic work, its clusters and angry dissonances transforming music that McCabe wrote for a 1973 Granada TV drama series.
The musicians make a persuasive case for these little-known pieces in performances of passion and insight, captured in crystal-clear recorded sound.
David Kettle
No comments yet