MOZART, ELGAR, GRIEG, BACH TO

The term “modern music” no longer suffices to describe the latest expressions of recent avant-garde composers. Modern music still means the music that came after Debussy and Strauss. It is Stravinsky and Ravel, Hindemith and Falla; it is Bartok, Prokofiev, Britten and Malipiero. Modern music is the breakdown of tonality and traditional harmony and the development of the twelve-tone system by the masters of the Viennese school – Schoenberg, Berg and Webern – and the spreading of this method in every country since the war. Modern music is still Dallapiccola and Petrassi, and the ready listener has little by little grown accustomed to all these expressions – the more recent ones (those relating to the relinquishing of traditional tonality) with somewhat greater difficulty.

But the works of those composers who have come to the fore since Hiroshima seems to cut away violently from this pattern, as difficult as its acceptance had proved to be. So, for them the term “new music” is most appropriate.

The evolution which has led to today’s baffling results is governed by an inner logic. Once the use of the twelve-tone “series” was firmly established, the desire quite naturally arose to extend this serialization process to the other “parameters” of music, that is, to subject its rhythmic, timbral and dynamic aspects to the same laws governing the disposition of the pitch of the notes.

“Structuring” (the organization of musical material) by means of total serialization of parameters was the first step the new music took beyond Webern. This extension of the serialization process to all parameters brought about a heightening of interest and investigation into the qualities and components of sound. The increased concern for this “tone color” and other hitherto unstructured aspects of sound and the diminishing interest in pitch as the primary structural element made it necessary to alter traditional listening habits. Where pitch distribution had been the primary expressive unit, now the other parameters took on equal or greater importance.

The new music, like all other forms of contemporary art, may or may not be liked, but its consistency cannot be questioned. There is an inner logic which has determined the various phases described above and which is already creating others in more and more rapid succession. They must not be taken as gratuitous and unrestrained expressions of individual extravagance.

-- from the liner notes by Massimo Mila

REBELO: VESPER PSALMS & LAMENT

SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets: No. 3; No. 14; No. 15. Piano Quintet • Juilliard Str Qrt; Yefim Bronfman (pn) • SONY 79018 (2 CDs: 127:38)


Among the releases celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Juilliard String Quartet (of course, none of the original members remain) is this most welcome set of Shostakovich quartets. Welcome because, despite the Juilliard’s longstanding commitment to 20th-century music in general and their having given the American premiere of the 15th Quartet in 1975 (with two of the current members, cellist Joel Krosnick and violist Samuel Rhodes, participating) in particular, this is apparently their first recording of any Shostakovich quartets. (The performance of the Piano Quintet, however, was recorded in 1999 and originally issued along with Bronfman’s account of Shostakovich’s two piano concertos—see Fanfare 23:4.) Most welcome because the quartet brings its usual penetrating insight and commitment to this music.


Truth be told, their account of the Third Quartet didn’t grab me on first hearing. With the rich, resonant, tonally nuanced sound of the Borodin Quartet foremost in my memory, the Juilliards initially seemed lean and distant, and the way they speed through the score came across as unfocused nervous energy (following a moderately paced Allegretto, slower than most, they take three of the four remaining movements significantly faster than the Borodins). But after several rehearings, I came to appreciate the different interpretive details they bring out—such as the jangly Cubist feel they give the first movement’s quasi-fugue and the excitement they obtain by whipping up the tempo in its concluding pages, or the gypsyish quality that their quick phrasing suggests after reference point 55 in the third movement. They may not dig as deep as the Borodins; instead, theirs is a more measured, varied perspective—for example, though lacking the Borodins’ remarkable tension at dramatic points, such as the expressive passage at 108 in the finale, they redeem themselves by deftly emphasizing the dance tune that appears almost immediately thereafter, as if to soften the blow. My ears also gradually adjusted to the recorded sound, so that I came to realize what at first seemed distant was actually more of a natural concert hall ambience and balance than the beefed up (and effective, but enhanced) engineering afforded the Borodins (EMI).


If the Third Quartet benefited from a bit of familiarity to reveal its irony and edginess, the Juilliard’s 14th and 15th Quartets were immediately engaging and convincing—all the more impressive as these are Shostakovich’s two most enigmatic quartets. The 14th is dedicated to Sergei Shirinsky, cellist of the Beethoven Quartet, and here Joel Krosnick makes the most of his featured role. I once wrote in a review that I wouldn’t argue with Royal S. Brown’s assessment of this quartet as “the least appealing, least original, and least successful of the 15” ( Fanfare 12:1), but the Juilliard interpretation has put this music into a new light for me. They fearlessly attack the score’s dissonances, making it sound more tonally ambiguous—and thus simultaneously more original and mysterious—than has any other ensemble in my experience. In their hands, the opening pages sound like a drunken Beethovenian aborted fugue—high spirited but slightly off-kilter—and even the fragmented finale is played with an intensity that makes it sound more coherent than ever before.


In the 15th Quartet as well, notorious for its six introspective Adagio movements, the Juilliards don’t shy away from the music’s bleakness and occasional harshness. They embrace its stark, transparent textures—the waltz in the second movement (ironically titled “Serenade”) isolates individual lines like exposed nerves, and Rhodes’s viola solo opening the “Nocturne” is not pretty, but painfully necessary. Though separated by 35 years, the mood of the opening pages of the final quartet is remarkably similar to that of the second movement fugue in the Piano Quintet, growing from simple motifs into a contrapuntal web of deep emotion until chant-like themes emerge as temporary balm, offered without exaggeration or pathos. Speaking of the Piano Quintet, Bronfman is an ideal partner—a powerful presence in the Richter mold, who can project tenderness or urgency as called for, and whose attitude is perfectly in sync with the Juilliard’s direct, yet dramatic approach.


In sum, these are distinguished, distinctive performances that interpretively fall in between the robust, sometimes exaggerated Russianness of the Borodin or Sorrel style, and the brisk, almost analytical precision of the Fitzwilliam and Emerson accounts. Is it too early to start thinking about this year’s Want List?


FANFARE: Art Lange

MENDELSSOHN String Quartets: No. 1 in E?, op. 12; No. 2 in a, op. 13 • Juilliard Str Qrt • SONY SK 60579 (55:29)

Can a chamber group have a musical identity that endures despite changes in personnel, the way an orchestra can? On the basis of the CD at hand, I'd have to say so. With the retirement of violinist Robert Mann in 1997 after 51 years (!), the Juilliard String Quartet has now, finally, turned over all its original players. Joel Smirnoff, for 11 years the group's second violinist, has moved confidently into Mann's chair, and Ronald Copes joined the quartet to take Smirnoff's old position. But listening to this excellent new disc of two Mendelssohn works, then to the Juilliard's late 70s recording of a Haydn op. 20 quartet (with the current violist and cellist, Samuel Rhodes and Joel Krosnick) and then to Beethoven's op. 18, no. 1, from a decade before (with an earlier bottom half of the quartet), I hear the same characteristic blend of refinement and soulfulness, the evolution of the lineup notwithstanding. Encountering the reconstituted Juilliard in the flesh was a highlight of last year's concert season for me; chamber music fans clearly have a lot to look forward to.

The E?-Major quartet gets a fairly relaxed reading, though the playing is certainly never slack. There's a natural ebb and flow to tempos in the opening movement and, in the second, a wonderful variety of textures is realized. In the central Allegretto of the movement, the Juilliard achieves a Midsummer Nights Dream sort of fleetness. The Andante is indeed espressivo without becoming overwrought. The swirling tarantellalike finale is presented with an understated virtuosity, before a peaceful closing. The A-Minor work is played with a greater level of emotional intensity. Dynamic contrasts are effective—the Juilliard can turn on a dime—and Smirnoff's leadership in the opening Allegro is both fervent and accurate. We hear flawless balances in the Intermezzo, and beautiful shaping of the simple thematic materials. The quartet is, again, wonderfully light on its feet with the quicksilver middle portion of the movement. For the concluding movement, Smirnoff satisfies in his solo passages with assured, beautifully contoured playing, and the ending, in which Mendelssohn quotes from his song Frage, as he does at the very beginning of the work, is quite moving.

Sony's string sound is warm and sweet, without a touch of stridency. The recording, made at the Giandomenico Studios in Collingswood, New Jersey, is close-up and involving, but still breathes. The packaging is attractive, with photos of the musicians in a parklike setting, and informed, well-written notes that point up the influence of Beethoven on these youthful compositions.

Among recent versions of the Mendelssohn quartets, those from Vienna's Artis Quartet, on Accord, have received high marks in Fanfare. I like them, too: The Artis offers direct, energetic performances, taking consistently faster tempos than the American players. The Juilliard may please a bit more in the slow movements. I'd not want to be without either. Listeners on a budget can consider the three discs of Mendelssohn's music for string quartet from Naxos, performances by the Aurora Quartet (four musicians from the San Francisco Symphony) that received a laudatory notice from John Wiser in Fanfare 18:2. Although their readings of ops. 12 and 13 are thoroughly convincing, they don't, for me, rise to the level of either the Artis or the Juilliard, and the sonics are less pleasing.

The Sony disc is heartily recommended. The Juilliard Quartet is back.

-- Andrew Quint, Fanfare [5-6/1999]

BETTER THINKING MOZART

Also available: Great Moments at Carnegie Hall

A 2-CD set of highlights of legendary live recordings from the RCA and Columbia Archives.

Digitally remastered edition of this album from the acclaimed cellist. This release was remastered using DSD technology. Hear Yo-Yo Ma like you've never heard him before.

Includes canzone(s) by Hans Leo Hassler. Soloist: Lutz Kirchhof.
Includes fantasia(s) by Alonso de Mudarra. Soloist: Lutz Kirchhof.
Includes galliarde(s) by Anonymous. Soloist: Lutz Kirchhof.
Includes menuet(s) by Charles Mouton. Soloist: Lutz Kirchhof.

Bach, Handel & Tartini: Violin Sonatas

This work is a reconstruction of Angelo Poliziano's verse drama of 1480. Paul van Nevel has replaced Poliziano's lost music with arrangements of compositions by Serafino Dall'aquilano, Marco Cara, Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Michele Pesenti.
Includes la favola di orfeo. Ensemble: Huelgas Ensemble. Conductor: Paul Van Nevel. Soloists: Josep Benet, Nancy Long, John Dudley, Marie-Claude Vallin, Philippe Cantor, Daniel Bietenhader, Dirk van Croonenborgh.

Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Scott Joplin

Includes courante(s) for lute by Robert Ballard. Soloist: Lutz Kirchhof.

Danza Latina

NOCTURNE

Bartók: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 - Webern: 4 Pieces for Vio

Beethoven's five sonatas for piano and cello are distributed through his works with unusual symmetry. The first two are quite early, published by the young careerist in 1797 to impress the cello-playing King Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia, while the third dates from 1808 and is contemporaneous with the 'Pastoral' Symphony. The last two were written in 1815, when his output was slowing prior to his great late period.
Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma approaches these sonatas with characteristic gentility and winsome charm. He plays a modern instrument in a manner informed by early music practices, and is partnered by Jos van Immerseel on a vintage fortepiano, meaning that the performances are scaled back somewhat in volume. Not that Bylsma would be dominating anyhow; romantic heroism is not his game, but he and Immerseel balance each other quite well, reminding one that these pieces are not called cello sonatas on their title pages but rather 'Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violoncello.'

Beethoven: Piano Trios, Opp. 97 & 11

Mozart: Divertimenti, K. 252 and 287

The year 2012 marks the Wergo label's 50th anniversary. For half a century, Wergo has been synonymous with contemporary music. The label's catalog reads like a virtual who's-who of modern music, both in terms of composers and performers. From the beginning, the intent of founder Werner Goldschmidt (from whom the label derives it's name) was to provide listeners with a snapshot of current musical activity and innovation. Goldschmidt's label and mission, now managed by the publisher Schott, is maintained to this day by a dedicated staff that is constantly striving to bring the best new music to the attention of the world. This specially-priced commemorative set features five discs, with one from each from the label's five rich decades. Featured composers include Cage, Nono, Schnebel Stockhausen and Stravinsky.

Eben: Okna - Starer: 3 Preludes - Hamlin: Sonata ben melodic

In a time where Mozart performances are dominated by an obsession with repeats, metronomic exactitude, precision of ensemble, and an approach that often combines slickness with impersonality, Casals might seem to have been a cellist forced to retire because of consistently faulty intonation and wavering technical control and who therefore turned exclusively to conducting when in his nineties (as he was when these recordings were made). He felt that if anyone wanted to hear what an eighteenth-century orchestra sounded like, the musicians need only play off-key—although he himself has been latterly criticized for occasionally ragged ensemble. Yet, for me, Casals was first and always a transcendent musician who loved music, who brought to Mozart the profound wealth of his own human experience, musical insight based on decades of visceral study, and a rare ability to communicate the richness and excitement he felt so deeply. His orchestra was totally responsive and committed. And what an orchestra!—with Jaime Laredo as concertmaster and Sergiu Luca as principal second in the "Haffner." Ever present is the shared joy of making music together. Casals's Mozart was, in the words of the producer of these recordings, Thomas Frost, "a fresh look at old masterpeices, unhampered by current trends, with a crisp spontaneity undulled by the routine of repeat performances." Casals's vision of Mozait exists outside the frenzies of fashion, an essential Mozart lyrical, compelling, transporting, with shadings in the darker passages mat intimate a depth which only music can express. There is here a reverence for these symphonies so often veiled from us today by scholarship which substitutes "authenticity" for inspiration, accuracy for conviction, exactitude for beauty, superficially impressive dynamics for an intense exuberance of the soul. As much as great interpreters of Mozart have given us, these performances provide this music with yet another dimension and one without which I shall never wish to be.

Jon Tuska, Fanfare [3/1992]

Immerseel, Beths and Bylsma offer period-instrument versions of Schubert’s B flat and E flat Piano Trios. However, theirs is not the delicate, fine-grained sound of, say, the Castle Trio (Virgin). Immerseel plays a 19th-century fortepiano by Tröndlin of Leipzig, whose full, rounded tone inspires all three musicians to project these works with striking vigour and energy. I was disturbed by a lumpy pulse in the first movement of the B flat Trio, but otherwise the fresh vitality of the music-making on this disc gives an effective portrayal of Schubert’s expressive extremes. Bylsma phrases the yearning melodies in the slow movements of both trios affectionately, while the ensemble fragrantly evokes dance in the Scherzos and stirs intense passions in the music’s more violent outbursts.

-- BBC Music Magazine

First CD recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Tierkreis" ("Zodiac") in the version for organ released by WERGO: Originally composed for music boxes, the work has been arranged for organ and recorded by the young organist Dominik Susteck at St. Peter in Cologne. The thirty-three-year-old, who has been organist at St. Peter for four years, realized this project not only at an unusual venue but also on an unusual instrument. Since the 1980s, this Catholic chappel combines the church with contemporary art: The "St. Peter's Art Station" has become not only a much sought-after venue for exhibitions of contemporary art but also a special venue for new music due to numerous concerts and services with 20th- and 21st-century music. In addition, the "St. Peter's Art Station" is provided with an instrument built by Willy Peter which was designed for contemporary music: The four-manual great organ and the three-manual choir organ currently have 104 stops, including such unusual sound additions as siren, saxophone, and percussion orchestra with cymbals, drums, or xylophone. The organ, inaugurated in 2004, is worldwide unique because of it's design and structure. Dominik Susteck describes his interpretation of Stockhausen's work as "frozen musical movement. The instrument no longer sounds like an organ but proves to be a colourful, agile and dynamic being".

Classical Music