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Stanford Quintets and Intermezzi
Posted by Chris Howell on November 12, 2020, 6:28 am
In his review of the Somm release of Stanford's 2 String Quintets anf the 3 Intermezzi op.13, Stephen Greenbank states that the Second Quintet and the Intermezzi are receiving their first recordings. He also adds, of the Intermezzi that "The pieces were intended for the violin, and when published a cello and piano version was included".
The Intermezzi were intended for the clarinet (Stephen does mention that the first performance was by the clarinettist Galpin), but the publisher refused them on the grounds that nobody bought clarinet music and obliged Stanford to rewrite the clarinet part for violin, which he did reluctantly. The original published score was of the violin and piano version, but separate parts were available for the cello and the "clarionet", as the publisher called it. As for first recordings, this is certainly the first recording of the second Quintet, but it is the first recording only of the cello version of the Intermezzi. Recordings of the clarinet version are fairly numerous (the one on Naxos by Robert Plane is easily found and excellent), while the violin version was recorded by Alberto Bologni and myself as part of our 3-CD survey of Stanford's violin and piano music. At least 2 reviews of this issue can be found on MWI. Lastly, my congratulations to Somm. With this latest CD, the entire canon of Stanford's chamber music is now available, proving it to be among the most consistently rewarding and inspired areas of his output.