John Puccio reviews ...(THE MUSIC)(Ades: Piano Quintet, Schubert: "Trout" Quintet)(Barber: Adagio for Strings, Violin Concerto, Orchestral and Chamber Works)(Bax: Symphonic Poems)(Bruckner: Symphony No. 5)(Concerto Veneziano)(de Falla: El Sombrero de Tres Picos, El Amor Brujo, Danza from La Vida Breve)(Dvorak: Tone Poems)(Grieg: Peer Gynt)(Mahler: Symphony No. 6)(Mendelssohn: Italian and Reformation Symphonies)(Monty Python's Spamalot. A CD Lovingly Ripped Off from the New Musical, Original Broadway Cast Recording)(Mozart: Requiem)(Sound Recording Review)

Ades: Piano Quintet; Schubert: "Trout" Quintet. Thomas Ades, piano; Arditti Quartet; members of the Belcea Quartet. EMI 7243 5 57664 2.

The gimmick here is the coupling of a modern piano quintet, Thomas Ades's 2001 piece, with a traditional quintet, Schubert's 1819 "Trout." In theory, we're supposed to hear, uh, I'm not sure what. How much alike they are? They aren't. How much different they are? That goes without saying. How each composer was trying out something new and different? More likely.

In his booklet essay, writer Tom Service tries valiantly to make some comparisons in the two works. He says of Ades's newer quintet, "... the architecture of the piece grows out of the transformations of its material. And in re-staging the challenges of sonata form, the Piano Quintet does not just articulate a contemporary creative perspective; it represents a vivid rethinking of the musical past." He goes on to say of the Schubert Quintet, "Schubert's forms are no less elusive than Ades's: the 'Trout' Quintet is an essay in displacement and unpredictability that finds a contemporary resonance in the slipperiness of Ades's piece. Both works make the familiar strange, and liquefy traditions in order to reinhabit them." Yeah, well, maybe.

The fact is, Ades's Quintet is typically modern, full of wonderfully bizarre sound scapes, fluctuating time schemes, varied pacing, and nary a remarkable melody in sight. It seems fairly lightweight next to the Schubert, something like an orchestra tuning up, but there's no doubting it holds a fascination all its own, particularly in its cool, sometimes translucently lunar musical landscape. The Schubert goes without saying, of course, filled as it is with one memorable melody after another, flowing in quicksilver fashion.

I have no idea how the Ades Quintet is supposed to be played, but as it is here performed by the composer himself, I can only assume it to be authoritative. As for the Schubert, it is interpreted at a very brisk tempo, much as another relatively young group just recorded it, Frank Braley and friends for Virgin Classics. Both ensembles show a degree of reckless abandon yet never sacrifice the work's elegant beauty or simplicity.

Insofar as EMI's recording is concerned, it is a tad brighter than most--perhaps a touch more transparent or a touch harder, depending on your point of view and how your equipment plays it back. I found that the clarity of the sound nicely complemented the lively performance. This would not be a first choice in the Schubert, in any case, but for the collector it makes a fascinating alternative reading.

Barber: Adagio for Strings; Violin Concerto; Orchestral and Chamber Works. Elmar Oliveira, violin; Leonard Slatkin, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. EMI 7243 5 86561 2 (2-disc set).