Goldner String Quartet with Kathryn Stott

Louis Vierne’s Piano Quintet in C minor Op 42 is a blockbuster. Both he and his mentor César Franck are remembered for organ pieces, but also like Franck, when not composing for church he let his musical hair down. Stott’s pianism is plush, richly textured and straight from the heart. She brought tremendous depth to the Vierne, fully equalling the combined sonic resources of Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, Irina Morozova and Julian Smiles as they mined Vierne’s plangent, tortured, darkly romantic harmonies for all they were worth. Written in 1917 and mourning both personal and public losses of World War 1, Vierne’s music takes César Franck a few steps further down the chromatic road making the Quintet almost Expressionist.

As usual, the Goldners played with immense concentration and focus bringing the white heat of Vierne’s fiercely emotional canvass into stark relief, ensuring listeners were completely immersed from start to finish. This work certainly deserves more hearings than it has currently received. Earlier the Goldners gave Beethoven’s equally expansive Razumovsky Quartet in F Op 59  No. 1 with the experience of years and a nuanced perspective born of long understanding. This was a performance that resonated with conviction and a sense of space.

Rodney Smith, The Advertiser