SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 15. BEETHOVEN String No. 16 • New Orford Str Qrt • BRIDGE 9363 (74:47)



This would be an impressive release for any seasoned ensemble; all the more so then that it marks the New Orford String Quartet’s debut album. An ensemble entering into the fray of such highly competitive arenas as Schubert’s and Beethoven’s quartets often raises the question critics invariably ask, “Do these performances offer new insights or have something special to say?” To that I can answer with a most emphatic yes.


“Unstable” is a key word in describing Schubert’s G-Major Quartet—harmonically unstable in its vacillation between major and minor and its undermining of tonality; rhythmically unstable in its strange leaping figures and shuddering tremolos; and most of all, emotionally unstable in its dizzying mood swings, evidence of a mind in the grip of a serious mental disorder. Much of Schubert’s private life and personal affairs has been revealed in recent years, but in many ways the boy-man remains an enigma.


Save for a fragment of a string quartet in F Major that appears in the Schubert catalog as D 998, the G-Major Quartet is the end of the line for the composer’s string quartets, though it would not be his last great chamber work for strings. That would be the String Quintet in C Major, which came two years later, in 1828, not long before his death. In a number of ways, this G-Major work, the last of Schubert’s completed quartets, picks up where its immediate predecessor, the “Death and the Maiden” Quartet of 1824, left off. I’m reminded of what Mahler is reputed to have said in reply to someone who had asked him why the funeral march in his First Symphony was so much different from the funeral march in Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. “Ah,” replied Mahler, “Beethoven describes the mourner; I depict the corpse.” Gruesome as the medical examiner’s lab imagery may be, Schubert’s G-Major Quartet strikes me as the Maiden on the autopsy table.


I don’t wish to go down the road of this analogy too far by saying that the New Orford Quartet’s performance resembles an autopsy on the deceased, but the ensemble’s reading does have a laser-sharp focus to it that lays bare every strand and fiber of the piece. The players take their time and exercise meticulous care, as well as respect, in cutting through and folding back the many layers of tissue. Oftentimes, performances of this work can have a frantic edge to them; I’m thinking, for example, of the recording by the Hagen Quartet. But tension built more slowly over longer arches can turn the emotional screws even tighter than sudden explosive outbursts. The New Orford’s reading of Schubert’s G-Major Quartet is an exemplary study in how to put the most elegant and refined playing to the purpose of delivering the most upsetting news—tragedy without the hysterics.


It’s obvious from the above interview that cellist Brian Manker and I don’t see completely eye-to-eye (or, should I say, don’t hear completely ear-to-ear?) on Beethoven’s final complete quartet, the F Major, op. 135. His speculation about the connection between the es in the Muss es sein introduction to the last movement and Es in German being the designation for E?, which could be an internal musical joke referring back to an event in the first movement, is certainly interesting and worth entertaining. But there is another joke, less abstruse, that has been connected to the Muss es sein incipit, and that is a scribbled note in which Beethoven is allegedly complaining about his housekeeper insisting on putting too much starch in his shirts: “Must it be? It must be.” This, in combination with the actual musical content of the movement, has always led me to hear the whole thing as a fairly lighthearted, even silly, romp. I think we would agree, however, that the Lento assai movement is one of Beethoven’s profoundest utterances.


The New Orford’s tempo at the outset of the quartet is a bit slower than I’m accustomed to hearing it. But it’s not one of the works Beethoven provided metronome markings for—only his quartets through op. 95 contain his own markings—and the first movement is marked Allegretto, so the New Orford’s reading may be entirely justified. But something else emerges at this slightly slower tempo that I find interesting and quite delightful, and that is a sly, slightly underplayed, tongue-in-cheek humor that tickles the funny bone in a different, perhaps more sophisticated way than other, more slapstick approaches.


Take, for example, the hiccups in the cello part that come shortly into the development section following the double bar and change of key signature to one sharp. Not a few cellists take these for rude, sophomoric belches, which, admittedly, is funny, especially if you’re into high school hijinks. But Manker sees these more as little burps that slip out embarrassedly in polite company, making them all the funnier for their lack of social propriety and grace. It puts me in mind of the long-circulated tale, 1601 , attributed to Mark Twain, in which he is privy to a conversation among Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, Ben Johnson, and 16-year-old Francis Beaumonte engaged in sniffing out who broke wind in company of the Queen. If memory serves, I think the culprit turns out to be the Queen herself. Twain, of course (whether he was the author of this particular farce or not) can always be counted on to entertain and edify and, so too, I think, can the playing of the New Orford Quartet.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

The Lark Quartet brings its stellar 30 year career to a close with this celebratory album. On it, Lark Quartet performs premieres by John Harbison, Kenji Bunch, Anna Weesner and Andrew Wagoner, all composed for the occasion. Assisting Lark Quartet are Yousif Sheronick, percussion (Bunch), Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet (Weesner) and the Lark's four founding members (Waggoner). The Lark Quartet continues to delight audiences with its energy, passionate commitment and artistry since its inception in 1985. The Lark has performed in many of the world’s great cultural centers including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Library of Congress, London’s Wigmore Hall, L’Opéra de la Bastille in Paris, and appeared at international festivals including Lockenhaus, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Mostly Mozart, Istanbul Festival, Wolftrap and the Beethoven Festival in Moscow. Promising to deliver “a performance of grace, proportion and burnished brilliance” (The Washington Post), The Lark Quartet offers audiences new insights into the art of chamber music through programs that begin with the ensemble virtuosity of the western tradition and continue into recent music from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, all while regularly sharing the stage with dynamic collaborators.

Toke Møldrup's virtuosic new set of Bach's six cello suites was recorded on a 1697 David Tecchler cello and culminates with a wildly decorated 6th suite performed on a five-stringed Italian instrument. Møldrup is principal cellist of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, and professor of cello at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. The release set also includes Viggo Mangor's charming arrangement of Suite no. 1 for two violins, organ and cello. The Danish cellist Toke Møldrup, 36, recently received Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Award for his achievements on the Danish music scene. In the 20 years of his career so far, he has performed both across Europe and in the United States, South America, Japan and the Middle East at venues such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Berlin Konzerthaus. A frequent guest at Danish music societies, Møldrup has performed as a soloist with Danish and international symphony orchestras under conductors such as Aldo Ceccato, Sanntu Rouvali, Thomas Søndergaard and Joshua Weilerstein.

On this specially-priced two-disc set, the Daedalus Quartet performs Haydn's six revolutionary Op. 20 "Sun" quartets. These six quartets, composed in 1772, were among the most influential quartets of their era. Before embarking on his own first (Op. 18) string quartets, Beethoven studied the scores of Haydn's six masterpieces, copying them out and scoring the first quartet for string orchestra.

"The excellent Daedalus Quartet, in residence at Columbia University, opened the season by playing Haydn's Quartet Op. 20, No. 2, one of the six "Sun" Quartets from that opus. The performance was insightful and vibrant. Hearing such an excellent, up-close performance made this Haydn piece seem even more monumental." - Anthony Tommassini, New York Times

"The Sun Quartets [are] so named because of an illustration on the title page of an early edition. This is adventurous explorative music, not at all routine." - Herbert Russcol

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott's Mozart Piano Concerto cycle continues with Mozart's brilliant first original Piano Concerto, the D major Concerto, K. 175, composed at age 17. Volume 2 also presents two of Mozart's unquestionable masterpieces, the powerful concerto in D major, 451, and the ever-popular Concerto in B-flat major, K. 450. McDermott's Mozart Vol. 1 has been met with glowing praise, Donald Vroon in The American Record Guide writing of K. 238: "Her playing is better than anyone else that I've heard. It's so alive! It's as if I never heard this Concerto before."

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REVIEW:

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott is competitive in her performances here with the best of the considerable recorded competition in this repertoire. If she maintains this high a level of playing throughout the series, she might well be a first choice in this repertory. This is simply excellent Mozart artistry and thus highly recommended.

– MusicWeb International

Aquarelles brings together three world class musicians- Bonita Boyd, Steven Doane and Barry Snyder, performing four classics from the flute, cello, and piano repertoire. Bonita Boyd began her career with the Rochester Philharmonic under David Zinman, becoming the youngest principal flutist of a major American orchestra. She is professor of flute at the Eastman School of Music, and is an active concert soloist throughout the world. Steven Doane and Barry Snyder have recorded extensively for Bridge, their recordings receiving rave reviews and awards from journals in the USA and Europe. The duo's recording of the complete music of Gabriel Faur� for cello and piano was awarded the Diapason D'or in France, and has been broadcast throughout the United States and Canada, over the BBC in England, and throughout Europe. The second recording in the series, of works by Britten and Frank Bridge, was also released to critical acclaim.

Yellowbird features the sensational tuba virtuoso Aaron Tindall in an album that defies categorization. Tindall's latest recording includes jazz pianist (Grammy-nominated Shelly Berg) on the ballad, "The Peacocks"; Claude Bolling's "Suite for Cello & Jazz Trio" in Tindall's breathtaking transcription for tuba; and a swinging rock band accompaniment to Fred Tackett's "Yellowbird". Prepare to be entertained and astonished! With his solo playing described as being "remarkable for both it's solid power and it's delicacy" and his orchestral playing praised as "a rock-solid foundation," Aaron Tindall is the associate professor of tuba and euphonium at the Frost School of Music located at the University of Miami, and the principal tubist of the Sarasota Orchestra. In the summers he teaches at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, where he also serves as Principal Tuba with the EMF Festival Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz.

For pianist Victor Rosenbaum's fourth album on Bridge Records; the artist turns to the last three piano compositions of Johannes Brahms. Rosenbaum's Schubert release was described as a “powerful and poignant record of human experience”, and much the same can be said of these profound readings of Brahms's late masterpieces. Pianist Victor Rosenbaum, former chair of the New England Conservatory piano department for more than ten years, has performed widely as soloist and chamber music performer in the United States, Europe, Asia, Israel, and Russia, in such prestigious halls as Alice Tully Hall in New York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has collaborated with such artists as Leonard Rose, Arnold Steinhardt, Robert Mann, and the Cleveland and Brentano String Quartets, among others. Festival appearances have included Tanglewood, Rockport, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, Kfar Blum (Israel) and Musicorda, where he is on the faculty. He has been soloist with the Indianapolis and Atlanta symphonies and the Boston Pops.

Classical Music

The Thirteenth Child is an opera in two acts, with music by Poul Ruders to a libretto by Becky & David Starobin. Commissioned by The Santa Fe Opera and the Odense Symfoniorkester, the libretto is an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm story, "The Twelve Brothers." The recording, made in Denmark and the USA, brings Ruders's gripping 80-minute score vividly to life.

The Thirteenth Child is Poul Ruders's fifth opera. The Danish composer is well known for his gripping dystopian opera, The Handmaid's Tale. The Thirteenth Child shares some of the dark world of The Handmaid's Tale, but also gives the listener a fairy tale, full of romance, magic, and transformation.

REVIEWS:

There is plenty of space for lyrical solo numbers in Ruders’ score, which veers between mid-Atlantic neoromanticism and something edgier and more expressionist in the orchestral interludes...it’s particularly Sarah Shafer in the role of Lyra who makes the most of his smoothly contoured vocal writing.

– Guardian (UK)

Fairy tales advance by surprising, generally magical events, and Ruders has invented captivating music for each. Ruders and his librettists have created an enchanting work in the genre of the fairy-tale opera, replete with spells, magic gardens, a quest to find 12 long-lost brothers, and a princess (the 13th child of the title) fated to undergo ill and happy adventures before she rescues her brothers and weds her prince.

There are two outstanding singers here in mezzo Tamara Mumford, as Gertrude, and lyric soprano Sarah Shafer as Lyra. Ruders furnishes the mother-daughter relationship with his most beautiful music, and the two singers are luminous in tone and moving emotionally. I must single out bass Matt Bochler as Hjarne, who encompasses an extraordinary vocal range extending from Fafner-like low notes to an eerie high falsetto. As the love interest, Prince Frederic, lyric tenor Alasdair Kent has a gleaming romantic tone perfectly suited to some of Ruders’s most romantic melodies."

– Fanfare Magazine - June, 2019

Buxtehude’s Opus 1 sits at a stylistic and formal crossroads, interweaving some of the most refined counterpoint of the 17th century with a sense of boundlessness in time and texture, creating a music in which order and fantasy coexist in perfectly imperfect balance. Composing at the dawn of the 18th century, Buxtehude demonstrates a fidelity to the caprices of earlier 17th-century works while also taking up the challenges of the more extended and developed ensemble writing then emerging in the works of Corelli and his 18th-century successors. Filament comprises a core trio of violin, viola da gamba, and keyboards. Filament's mission is to be the bright connective thread — that eponymous filament — linking the world of its audience with that of its repertoire.

The Opus Two violin-piano duo presents new arrangements of musical highlights from Stephen Sondheim's brilliant Broadway shows. Arranger Eric Stern reminisces about his work with Sondheim: "I was one of the many lucky ones who got to work with Sondheim and experience close hand his genius, collaborative nature, and inherent kindness." Stern's work with Sondheim included the 1984 revival of Pacific Overtures, conducting Sunday in the Park with George in the second year of it's original run, co-music directing the first production of Into the Woods, conducting productions of Follies, and conducting Merrily We Roll Along at the Kennedy Center. Mr. Stern writes that "My last conversation with him was about the Little Night Music suite which you'll find on this album. We are all extremely grateful for his enthusiastic endorsement of the arrangement and performance, muted only by our sorrow that the rest were written after his passing."

Composer Steve Mackey's Memoir is a 75-minute work for narrator, string quartet and percussion duo based on the unpublished memoir written by his mother - Elaine Mackey. Ms. Mackey bore witness to the tumultuous 20th Century - The Great Depression, WWII, while battling social anxiety, divorce, and alcoholism. She writes with disarming candor about her experiences, which are brought to life in son Steve's propulsive, yet tender, heartfelt score. Director Mark DeChiazza writes that "The text of Elaine's memoir, provide Mackey his point of entry - a portal through which he conducts a musical conversation with his mother, and his engagement with the document she left him." The recording features stunning performances by narrator Natalie Christa Rakes, who is joined by two of today's leading ensembles, the Dover Quartet and Arx Duo.

This CD marks the first commercial release of recordings by the great Czech guitarist, Petra Polackova. Producer David Starobin writes: "A few years ago I came upon some stunning video of the guitarist Petra Polackova. Since then I've avidly followed her work, and have marveled at her passionate performances of repertoire spanning the centuries. What a pleasure it was to finally meet in 2024 for these recording sessions in New York City. Petra is a musician after my own heart - a deep player, who seduces the listener into the dreamworld of that consummate Romantic, J. K. Mertz. Hearing Mertz's music as he performed it, on a "Romantic Guitar" with added basses, gives these small gems nearly symphonic range, without sacrificing their exquisite intimacy."

Much of Arlene Sierra's compositional output centers on the natural world, addressing the subjects of landscape, evolutionary biology, and the sounds, processes and behavior of birds and insects. Arranged into three books, Sierra's Birds and Insects comprises 15 movements composed across a twenty-year period. The three books are performed brilliantly here by pianists Steven Beck (Books 1 and 2) and Sarah Cahill (Book 3). The album is the fourth in Bridge's ongoing Arlene Sierra series.

Cellist Louise Dubin's new collection of French cello works include pieces by masters Debussy, Faure and Koechlin, side by side with rarities by the lesser known Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884), and contemporary composer Philippe Hersant (b. 1948). Ms. Dubin's last award-winning album was devoted to the compositions of Franchomme. This new recording features both Franchomme's arrangements and original compositions.

The superb flute, harp, viola trio, Hat Trick, returns to Bridge with a fascinating program of recent works coupled with a classic. The trio, April Clayton, flute; Kristi Shade, harp; and David Wallace, viola, perform new music by Thea Musgrave, Daniel Dorff, Jessica Meyer, David Bruce, and Angelica Negron alongside Sir Arnold Bax's 1916 "Elegiac Trio".

The previous volumes of William Bland's piano sonata cycle have met with ecstatic praise from the international press. American critic Ken Meltzer writes: "Compelling music, superbly performed. A marvelous presentation of the Romantic piano in full flight." And from British critic Colin Clarke: "The range of expressive tools is vast. It's grand music, with grand playing from Kevin Gorman. It is fervently to be hoped that this series continues." The Atlanta Audio Society wrote of Vol. 2: "In the last analysis, this is one of the best new piano recordings of the year." The brilliant 30-year old American pianist Kevin Gorman's new recording presents premieres of two sonatas: No. 6 in c minor, Bestiary - con Amore (2001) and No. 15 in e-flat minor (2004).

Bridge Records announces the release of Volume 21 the Complete Crumb Edition, a monumental recording project begun in 1982, and completed 42 years later with this final installment. The Grammy award-winning Crumb series documents the late American composer's complete catalog of works, spanning Crumb's seventy-five year compositional career. Project producer David Starobin writes that “the series benefited tremendously from George's participation in the recording and post-production of these documents.” This last volume includes compositions from the beginning, middle, and end of Crumb’s career and features the world premiere recording of the composer's penultimate composition, the percussion quintet Kronos-Kryptos (2020), performed by Ensemble 20/21 of the Curtis Institute of Music. The record also includes Crumb's second acknowledged composition, the Sonata for Solo Violoncello (1955), performed by cellist Timothy Eddy, as well as two performances of Crumb's piano solo, Processional (1983), played by pianists Gilbert Kalish (keyboard version) and Marcantonio Barone (alternate version with extended piano effects).

This unique album of chamber music by Patrick Stoyanovich features performances by the composer's daughter, the violinist, Sophia Stoyanovich. Ms. Stoyanovich's intense connection with her father's music can be gleaned by a brief sample of her liner notes: "In the fall of 2019, on a visit to Paris, my father walked down the Rue de Paradis. A year later, while working on his second Sonata for violin and piano, the memory of that street inspired the closing theme of it's final movement. This theme seems to reach out it's hand, consoling the listener after a monumental journey. I find wisdom in my father's music in a moment like this, in which an intimate honesty of sentiment answers music of struggle, addressing our emotional need as listeners." Ms. Stoyanovich is partnered by pianist Derek Wang and cellist Aaron Wolff in these deeply felt recordings.

The two books of David S. Lefkowitz's Preludes and Fugues for Piano were performed by a team of four pianists, a cantor, and the composer himself. Lefkowitz asks: "What does it mean to write a fugue in a post-tonal world, in which "major" and "minor" scales have been left behind? 12 of the 13 preludes and fugues in my first book are based on newly-invented scales." Lefkowitz's second book goes even further, using the rich possibilities of a prepared piano, vocal sounds and a finale for two pianos. Lefkowitz's huge musical palate is near-Mahlerian in this challenging and rewarding cycle that spans nearly three hours.

This fascinating recital features three works composed during a short period of tremendous upheaval in the world of music. Szymanowski's Mythes: Trois Poèmes, op. 30 was composed in 1915, Dohnányi's Sonata, op. 21 in 1912, and Bartók's Sonata No. 1 in 1920-21. Violinist Elizabeth Chang writes that "the crosscurrents of multiculturalism and the pursuit of a national identity separate from the prevailing Germanic legacy, are topics with searing relevance to the early 21st century. Probing the connections among the densely intertwined web of musicians of this time yields insight into an inflection point in musical history that unleashed the wildly divergent paths that music composition took as the twentieth century unfolded." This recording presents beautifully detailed performances of three important pieces, performed by two leading virtuosi.

The composer Dominick Argento wrote that he would "like for the listener to be reminded of their own humanity. I want an emotional reaction, anywhere from joy to despair... something that reminds us that we're human." The sets of songs and cycles included in this brilliant recording all speak to this artistic goal and include settings of Olga and Anton Chekhov, Petrarch, Walt Whitman, Walter de la Mare, Alun Lewis, and Argento himself. Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianists Martin Katz and JJ Pena join forces to present this tribute to a great American composer.

Winner of a 2019 Independence Foundation Grant, the 2018 Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, as well as an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Anna Weesner has also received Guggenheim and Pew Fellowships. Ms. Weesner studied at Yale and Cornell, and is Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

Volume 18 of BRIDGE'S Paul Lansky series is a percussion spectacular, featuring the American mallet virtuoso, Gwendolyn Dease. The wide-ranging program includes a percussion solo, a percussion and violin duo, a percussion quartet, and a concerto for percussion and wind ensemble, all by the celebrated American composer Paul Lansky in honor of his 80th birthday. Assisting Ms. Dease are percussionists Ji Hye Jung, Jisu Jung, and Ayano Kataoka; violinist Yvonne Lam; and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, Kevin Sedatole, conductor.