Franck Piano Quintet in F minor and Fauré Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor

Composed in 1879, the Piano Quintet in F minor by César Franck belongs to the fruitful final period of his creative life. It heralded the start of an impressive sequence of late orchestral and chamber pieces which set the seal upon his career. The Piano Quintet was premiered in Paris on 17 January 1880 by the Marsick Quartet with Saint-Saëns at the piano. During the last quarter of the 19th century and into the 1920s, it was Gabriel Fauré who made the most substantial and lasting contribution to French chamber music. Fauré’s Piano Quintet no.1 renews the powerful concentration of his earlier Piano Quartets in its outer movements, while also looking forward to the composer’s later works in the sophisticated phrasing and chromaticism of its extended Adagio. Vibrant and spirited, it may be counted among the composer’s finest creations. Paul Conway
This beautifully recorded juxtaposition of two three-movement, minor-key, harmonically progressive French masterpieces the other being Fauré’s Piano Quintet No 1 in D minor makes for a deeply satisfying disc. Both achieve a balance of the string and keyboard forces, avoiding the clatter of an overdominant piano, and sporting exquisite tintinnabulations such as in the Franck’s central Lento or the Fauré’s opening stretch. –Paul Driver, The TimesThis is a forceful performance, mature in every sense, and the Wihan Quartet know how to imbue it with grand passion without lapsing into garish sentimentality and Shikimori matches them at every turn. The ensemble is immaculate with enough give and take to let individual flourishes come through, each always listening but with a different contribution to the conversation. Overall… this is a disc to savour. –Simon Mundy, Classical Music MagazineMami Shikimori is the glue that holds the Quintets together in a very tight and thoughtful manner. This allows the Wihan Quartet to capitalize on their own brand of embellished punctuations. An irresistible winner at best. –Christie Grimstad, ConcertoNet