Beethoven’s String Quintet does not get as many performances or recordings as such a fine and original work deserves. Perhaps the scoring for string quartet and added viola invites too much competition with Mozart’s masterpieces for the same combination, but this is a piece of very different hue, lighter and more of a serenade. Until, that is, the finale: this extraordinary movement, which has in the past caused enough confusion for the work to attract the nickname ‘The Storm’, contains violent outbursts which set something of a problem to the performers. The Academy players neither break convention nor suggest some very profound disruption; rather, they play it as if it were a throwback to a Sturm und Drang gesture such as Haydn might suddenly have made.
This works well, as does the easy style and fresh manner of the Septet. The finale here is taken at a perilously fast pace, but Kenneth Sillito, the leader, keeps his nerve and his sense of humour, and the outcome is highly enjoyable. So are the pert rhythms of the Scherzo, with the horn player Ian Brown on nimble form, and the cheerful exchanges of the variations, while the clarinettist Andrew Marriner maintains a long and eloquent line in the Adagio without losing his own lightness of touch. Two very likeable performances.'