This recording derives from a concert given in the Martin Luther Church in Peine. At least three members of what I take to be the Gelbard Piano Quartet (Gelbard himself, cellist Rossokha and pianist Elena Kuschnerova) are now resident in Germany though Mikhail Moulder still seems to be teaching in Moscow. Firstly a quick word about names. Though the disc sports the name Guelbard I have been assured that Gelbard is the preferred spelling.

The church acoustic is not very appealing for the chamber works and can, it must be said, get a little tiring. The most harmonious work in this respect is the Piano Quartet, which gets a strong and often pensive performance and expands to fill the space quite satisfactorily. The performance is underpinned by the pianist’s sensitively shaped contribution and the corporate rhythmic drive is well calibrated, even though some of the string playing can be scrappy in the heat of the moment. But the sonatas do bear the brunt of the problem and they’re not helped by Gelbard’s rather unrelieved playing. From the start of the Brahms we are aware of vibrato bulges and dynamics that tend to stress the potential non-legato unease of the opening paragraphs to an exaggerated degree. It’s a feature of his performance that overstatement and over-vibration are predominant and when technical problems occur (they do and they are passing in the main) they tend to impede rhythm. They certainly charge into the finale after some capriciously phrased passages in the Scherzo – and it’s probably the recording’s fault that accompanying violin figures are much too loud. Kuschnerova plays extremely well and is genuinely supportive but the end is just too untidy and uncomfortable.

The Schubert shares many of the same characteristics as the Brahms; there’s a rather hectoring quality to the music-making in the first movement that I find inimical to affectionate or flowing phrasing though the Andante is very much better with fine chordal depth from Kuschnerova. Their Minuetto, however, is a bit jowly after the freshness of Grumiaux and Castagnone. Sorry, but I don’t get their Allegro finale at all; it’s point-makingly slow and artificially "interior."

Jonathan Woolf

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