The CD of Schubert's String Quintet, Oleg Kagan Edition Nr. XXVII, was recorded live at a concert in St. Martin's Church in Basel just one and a half years before the death of the great Russian violinist Oleg Kagan. This Schubert interpretation enables not only a wonderful appreciation of the highly sensitive playing of Kagan and his fellow musicians but also brings a seldom encountered insight into the complexity of Schubert to be found in the legacy of his chamber music.

The five instrumentalists approach Schubert with great self-confidence and an intensity bordering on self-exhaustion. This gives an overwhelming forcefulness to each precisely formulated movement. Already in the exposition of the opening Allegro ma non troppo a compelling nervous restlessness, which pervades the entire work, creates moments which seem to bring the very order of the music into jeopardy. Then suddenly at the beginning of the development (9'39) out of this questioning a "yes" breaks through, which is the characteristic feature of Schubert's music.

In the following Adagio Kagan plays with such human empathy and simplicity that one is moved to call it heavenly. The middle part reveals in a touchingly painful way that here one is touching upon a chimera, a forbidden happiness. Out of great lamentation comes resignation which then falls into an intense death-like silence Here we can trace the quiet tones of Morton Feldman's music back to their roots in Schubert's music.

The aggressive energy of the Scherzo with its radical intensity can only be compared to the legendary 1952 recording with Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals. In the Trio strength is absent as if the music had already burned itself out. In the Finale it becomes clear that the music has led the listener up to the very rim of an abyss to an end of composed classical music of reason and to its farewell which Schubert was only capable of composing despite great reluctance. This interpretation does not attempt at all to smooth over the inner contradictions of this work, they are simply worked out to the end in a way that moves us very deeply.

Should you hunt for a shortcoming in this superb recording you might find it perhaps in the somewhat resonating recording site (a church) but certainly not in the quality of the recording. The instruments have a distinctly natural tone, the sound is transparent and compact, and most important of all, you can reach out and touch its living presence.

Robert Spoula
Klassik Heute 
Recommendation November 2001