This latest recording (ABC CLASSIC 481 9887) from historically informed performance ensemble Ironwood is a significant addition to the canon of HIP performance research and performance in both this country and globally.

Above : Ironwood on ABC Classic (481 9887) 2020.

It’s excellent preparation and execution sets about exploding  uninform stereotypes of how to perform music leaning towards Romanticism . Its portrait of a certain swoop of  French chamber music in  chronological order on this recording is a very special trajectory to follow. The nineteeth century piano quintet works here unfold with a calm elegance, a secure sense of drama and colourful, irresistible charm.

Romantic Dreams begins with a warm ensemble gesturing in the work of Lousie Farrenc. It builds in scope as Ironwood’s intelligent and earnest musicians accurately present the Parisian contribution to chamber music from 1835 onwards with a clear directness.

Through the two large scale works juxtaposed here we are sensibly drenched in the ingenuity of a French chamber music composition and sound world as music hurtled away from Classicism towards a denser, freer expression.

Above : violinist Robin Wilson.

This offering is suitably unique and interesting in its choice of works. The Piano Quintet in A minor, Op 30 No 1 (1839) is more rare heard of the two works. As with Louise Farrenc’s  chamber music for wind, this work shows a gentle tearing away from the past with an incline towards Romanticism  and featuring undulating bold statements which make it a very rewarding listen, especially in the hands of Ironwood’s members.

The coupling of this work’s eloquence with the  vivid filigree of fellow French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Quintet  Op 14 (1855), also in A Minor is a successful choice. This structuring gives the listener an expansive and realistic chronological snapshot of French chamber music developing in the mid nineteenth century in parallel to trends towards Romanticism elsewhere in Europe.

Above : Simon Oswell, viola.

Any new recording should give the listener renewed opportunity for discovery and various reasons to (perhaps once again) become a fan of composers and artists.

The clear and deceptively simple opening to Farrenc’s quintet and the elaborations which follow in later movements are pitted against broader,  kaleidoscopic textures in Saint Saëns’ work.  The pair of compatriots appear as exciting superstar designers of an evolving new-look  piano quintet for a new era.

It is also easy here to be a fan of and discover so much from  the academic approach of Ironwood’s members. Their research into playing of the time and the performance process brought to this recording  is documented in great but accessible detail in excellent CD liner notes.

Above : Violinist Rachael Beesley with cellist Daniel Yeadon. Photo credit Nick Gilbert

The accuracy and  boldness of these HIP scholars gives us fresh examples of  keyboard chordal arpeggiation, reduction of string vibrato as well as other period approaches to use of the portamento effect in strings.

Tempo fluctuation used for colourisation of mood changes and inequality of note length are discussed in the liner notes and employed throughout tastefully to give a heightened expressive voice . These are highlights to listen out for in both works and are satisfying to check with the recording and scores for the keener observer.

Pianist Neal Peres Da Costa leads well in the Farrenc work. This music appeared almost a decade after Beethoven’s death, but reaches back beyond his non-French, near-Romantic rebelliousness   to the charm of earlier salon music and adherence to structural symmetry.

Farrenc writes with wonderful outbursts at times and quasi-Beethoven sudden changes  which would please the German master. Ironwood delivers these in solidand secure unison with believable drama.

The second movement of Farrenc’s piano quintet  is quite sublime in its stillness. As in the slow second movement of the Saint Saëns work, the gentle arpeggiation on piano chordal passages shows itself to be an historical feature well worth employing.

Above : Pianist Neal Peres Da Costa. Photo credit : Nick Gilbert

The piano part as played in both works is revealing of what must have been a teriffic piano virtuosity and highly creative keyboard sense in the two composers. A clarity, directness and ingenious blend of keyboard and string sensibilities within the chamber music tradition is strong in these works. The conversations brought to life  for us are enhanced by Ironwood’s consistent poise and large arsenal of period performance practice devices.

The string quartet team with or without double bass and with careful use of vibrato is well blended and crystal clear. Once again their clarity and versatility of historical tone as well as many vintage effects deserves excited fans indeed.

Above : Double bass player, Robert Nairn.

The opening to the final movement of the Saint Saëns’ work by Ironwood’s players is a soundscape tinted with beautifully seamless tone and exquisite string textures. It is to be envied by any quartet on the planet.

In this work’s preceding movements, the ensemble thread moving in so many directions at once in shifting shapes amongst piano and string registers were finely harnessed to be  candid, full of changeable character yet lucid and controlled.

Both works we discover with freshly restored ornament through Ironwood’s discipline and passion.  The temptation of overplaying sometimes coupled with even early Romanticism is not the stuff of an educated mistake here.

This recording makes a refined rentrée with freshly restored ornament to a specific era of piano chamber music development. The voices of period instruments used, including a period French Érard piano which has been in our country for some time sing with discerning tone.

We  are lucky to have such instruments and Ironwood’s  historically informed experts in our country at any time, on a truly new recording you will want to listen to time and time again.