Brahms: Piano Quartets, Opp. 25 & 60 (2008)

Coming off a highly satisfying and successful debut in her first Marquis Classics release, Introducing Xiayin Wang, pianist Xiayin Wang needn't have worried about the "sophomore jinx," which primarily affects popular music artists and not the classical ones. The flavor of the month factor is not such a big deal in the classics; fans tend to be devoted for good for the run of an artist's recordings, or simply are not fans of a given artist. Nevertheless, one might get the impression that perhaps Wang was looking to sidestep ... Read More

Coming off a highly satisfying and successful debut in her first Marquis Classics release, Introducing Xiayin Wang, pianist Xiayin Wang needn't have worried about the "sophomore jinx," which primarily affects popular music artists and not the classical ones. The flavor of the month factor is not such a big deal in the classics; fans tend to be devoted for good for the run of an artist's recordings, or simply are not fans of a given artist. Nevertheless, one might get the impression that perhaps Wang was looking to sidestep the sophomore jinx -- much as Mahler avoided the fatal ninth symphony through composing Das Lied von der Erde instead -- through making her second Marquis release a chamber album rather than another solo outing as her first had been. This Marquis' effort features Wang in the first and third Brahms piano quartets in collaboration with the Amity Players, a Canadian trio of émigrés who, like Wang, are young and precociously gifted. One could not typify these performances as being... Read Less