As with the orchestral and solo instrumental repertoire, the period-performance movement has brought more ways to play chamber music than you can shake a stick at. Or even a clarinet or bassoon.
Consider the four Schubert releases listed above. In terms of sound, the most authentic (always a dangerous word) is probably Virgin Classics' recording of the Atlantis Ensemble, performing the glorious Octet for Winds and Strings on instruments approximating those of the composer's day.That means a brighter, generally more astringent string sound - though not so astringent as the Academy of Ancient Music's recording of the same piece on Oiseau-Lyre - and valveless horn playing of remarkable virtuosity. In short, exactly the kind of performance one would expect from a group whose principal chair is occupied by violinist Jaap Schroeder.
Even more important is the interpretive vitality the group brings to this wonderful score, savoring not only the sound of their instruments (especially the rustic quality of the winds) but the characteristic inflections in which the writing abounds.
The Cleveland Octet, by contrast, is made up of members of the Cleveland Orchestra. And while the sounds they make are distinctly modern, again the spirit is right, in a reading that is likewise spacious but alive, with a particularly invigorating scherzo. If there is a standout among the soloists, it is probably clarinetist Theodore Johnson. At the same time the fourth-movement theme-and-variations go swimmingly and the jauntily cheerful finale is far more to my taste than the overly leisurely view Gidon Kremer and his cohorts advance on their otherwise commendable DG recording.
Less successful than either, I think, is Sony Classical's new CD of the great C major String Quintet, performed on instruments from the Smithsonian Institution's Stradivarius collection, here re-outfitted with gut strings. But again the reasons have more to do with interpretation than authenticity per se.
For often the feeling persists that the whole here is less than the sum of the parts, some of which are very impressive indeed. I particularly like the inner tension the group brings to the first and third movements, especially the electrifying thrust of the latter. But even here one senses a coarse, uncongealed quality to the playing that does not sit well on the more reflective episodes. Nor are things redeemed by the appended A major Rondo, pleasant enough but hardly representative of Schubert at his best.
The Quintet is, however. As is its piano-and-strings counterpart, the celebrated "Trout" Quintet, newly enshrined on the above-listed Cleveland Quartet CD - their first, I think, with first-violinist William Preucil.
Here, too, the filler seems to me something of a dead weight, an overly tentative performance of the A minor Quartet, D. 804. I admire its sensitivity but, until the finale, not its comparative lack of spine.
The "Trout," happily, is another story, a fleet but shapely view of this engaging opus in which John O'Conor's rippling pianism is exquisitely balanced against the quartet. In short, a case can be made for other "Trouts," but anyone opting for this will have no cause for regret. For as with the period performances discussed above, between the flesh (i.e., the instruments themselves) and the spirit, it is the latter that wins every time.