In 2013, the Attacca Quartet completed a recording project of the complete works for string quartet by John Adams for Azica Records. The review in the New York Times praised this vivacious, compelling set, describing the quartet's playing as exuberant, funky and... exactingly nuanced. The Boston Globe also praised the release, stating: Few [recent recordings] are as consequential as 'Fellow Traveler'... superb performances. The album was the recipient of the 2013 Nat'l Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award. The hope for our version of Haydn's Seven Last Words (a new arrangement by the Attacca Quartet's cellist Andree Yee) is that it sounds organic enough that even one who has heard the piece performed often will not consciously register anything has been done at all. It is further hoped this version retains the spirit and intimacy of a home version for string quartet, while seamlessly incorporating enough depth to deem it worthy of the concert hall.

This is the first installment in the Pacifica Quartet's highly anticipated, four-volume CD survey of the complete Shostakovich string quartets: The Soviet Experience: String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries. The Soviet Experience is the first Shostakovich quartet cycle to include works by other important composers of the Soviet era, adding variety and perspective to the listening experience. This superbly performed series of audiophile recordings, produced and engineered by multiple Grammy Award winner Judith Sherman, will appeal to everyone interested in great Russian music of the 20th century. It's also a great value: each two-CD installment is priced as a single CD.

REVIEW:

Cedille certainly produces some of the smartest “concept” albums in the classical music business today, because the concept always seems to work musically. Now the Pacifica Quartet is one of the best chamber ensembles out there, as its Mendelssohn recordings for this same label attest. Even so, there’s no dearth of fine Shostakovich cycles, from the Borodin Quartet to the Emerson. These performances, every bit as fine as those, would be excellent by themselves, but they do risk getting lost in the discographic shuffle. So it was an inspired idea to pair them in this series with other important works in the same medium by Shostakovich’s contemporaries. I’m not sure if this adds up to a “Soviet Experience”, whatever that is, but it does make for some great listening.

The four Shostakovich quartets offered here constitute the heart of the cycle, culminating in the incredibly popular (amazing because musically it’s very sad) Eighth Quartet. In this latter work, the Pacifica Quartet finds a perfect balance between technical polish and raw intensity, nowhere more so than in the ferocious second movement. In Quartet No. 5, with its complex outer movements, the players pace the music with an unerring feeling for tension and relaxation. Even the slender Seventh, Shostakovich’s shortest quartet, has an unusual measure of cogency and expressive depth.

Miaskovsky’s Thirteenth Quartet, his last, is a splendid work: conservative to be sure, but so beautifully written. The scherzo, marked “Presto fantastico”, displays a vast quantity of color and texture, but then the entire work belies the notion that the quartet medium tends toward the monochrome. The thematic invention is also surprisingly arresting for this composer; some of the symphonies seem bland in comparison. Once again, it would be difficult to imagine a finer performance, and the engineering allows the players’ attractive sonority and well-balanced ensemble work to speak with total naturalness. A great start to a very promising series.

-- ClassicToday.com (David Hurwitz)

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PROKOFIEV String Quartets: No. 1 in b; No. 2 in F. Visions fugitives (arr. S. Samsonov) • Energie Nove Qrt • DYNAMIC 726 (69:31)


The Italian label Dynamic seems to be re-energizing itself (pun intended) with a roster of new and unfamiliar artists. First it was a recording of Bach’s French Suites with a harpsichordist new to Fanfare , Alessandra Artifoni, reviewed elsewhere in this issue; and now we have a similarly unfamiliar string quartet ensemble billing itself Quartetto Energie Nove, which, like Artifoni, has neither an official website nor any other recordings I could find. The ensemble’s rep agency, Suavis Artists, does however, have a bio-blurb about the group, and I stumbled upon a YouTube entry of a complete performance by the ensemble of Beethoven’s “Harp” Quartet, op. 74, which sounds very promising. Energie Nove’s makeup is international—Russian, German, and Italian—but all four musicians play on neutral territory, being members of Switzerland’s Orchestra della Svizzera Italiano. Familiar names, such as Salvatore Accardo, Tibor Varga, Franco Gulli, and Valentin Berlinsky (long-time cellist of the Borodin Quartet), figure prominently in Energie Nove’s training.


To repeat what I’ve said many times before, we are blessed to be living in a golden age of string playing, and the Quartetto Energie Nove is but yet another manifestation of our blessings. Most performances of Prokofiev’s First String Quartet start off with an appropriately jaunty stride of cockeyed optimism. But Energie Nove’s players spring forth, jack-in-the-box like, with a mischievous alacrity. Their first movement timing, 6:39, leaves the St. Petersburg Quartet (on Delos), at 7:43, in the dust. They’re even faster than the Emerson Quartet at 7:05 and the Chilingrian Quartet (on Chandos) at 7: 01.


In the Andante , the timings are reversed, with Energie Nove being slightly slower and more probing than any of the above-cited three versions, while in the last movement—the one Prokofiev himself arranged for string orchestra—Energie Nove’s timing is very close to the others, but its playing is sharper edged. The effect, to recall the previous pun, is to energize the music in a way I’ve not heard it played before. Admittedly, I’ve not heard the recent version by the Pavel Haas Quartet on Supraphon, which was very highly rated by Boyd Pomeroy in 33:6 and Want Listed by Bart Verhaeghe in 34:2.


Prokofiev was close to 40 when he wrote his first of only two string quartets in 1930. The work was commissioned by the Library of Congress, where it was first performed the following year. The composer’s Second Quartet, in F Major, was written a decade later and under very different circumstances. By 1941, Prokofiev was back in Moscow, but not for long. When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, he, along with several other artists the government deemed “high value” assets, was whisked away to the safety of Nalchik, a town some 900 miles south of Moscow. It was here that the composer was asked (ordered, would be more accurate) to write a string quartet based on the Karbadino-Balkar folk tunes and rhythms of the indigenous tribal peoples of this North Caucasus region.


One would think that having to produce a work on-demand like that would not motivate a composer to his best efforts, but Prokofiev became quite intrigued by the native folk music he’d been directed to incorporate into his new quartet, and he ended up composing a very attractive and, in some ways, more emotionally stirring score than that of his First Quartet. Again, Energie Nove plays with consummate technical authority and real feeling for the music’s folk idioms.


Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives , 20 short pieces the composer wrote for piano between 1915 and 1917, performed here in an arrangement for string quartet by Sergei Samsonov, is perhaps a bit of an odd choice as a complement to the two string quartets, but the sad fact (our loss) is that Prokofiev didn’t really compose much chamber music. These two string quartets, a Quintet for mixed winds and strings, a couple of sonatas for violin and piano, a Sonata for cello and piano, a Sonata for two violins, and a Sextet, better known as Overture on Hebrew Themes , are about the extent of it, unless one counts a few miscellaneous pieces for violin and piano and for cello and piano. Though the Visions fugitives string quartet arrangement is not in Prokofiev’s hand, it makes more sense to me as a disc filler than does the Emerson Quartet’s choice of the two-violin sonata—the identical program offered by the Pavel Haas Quartet—or the St. Petersburg Quartet’s choice of a not very appealing 1985 string quartet by Georgian composer Zurab Nadarejshvili. And Energie Nove’s choice is certainly preferable to the Chilingrian Quartet’s filler on Chandos, which is nothing, a 43-minute disc I’m now retiring from my collection.


I’m hoping to hear a lot more from Quartetto Energie Nove in the future. Meanwhile, this new Prokofiev offering is strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Joseph Haydn’s orchestral work The Seven Last Words of Our Savior On the Cross was commissioned in 1783 for the Good Friday service at Oratorio de la Santa Cueva. There are seven main meditative sections, which are all slow movements labeled “sonatas, that are framed by an introduction and an “Earthquake” conclusion, for a total of nine movements. The present release is from a live performance at the Vienna Konzerthaus, on March 15, 1992. Sandor Vegh conducts the Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg for this performance. This release is part of the Capriccio Encore series, which is a series of re-releases of the most famous recordings from Capriccio’s back catalogue, fully re-mastered and competitively priced. The legendary recordings of artists such as Sandor Végh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys’ Choir also contain repertoire highlights that have a particularly special appeal, from the baroque to the present day.

No doubt about it, Jennifer Higdon is a master craftsman. The three works hear are all attractive, formally shapely, smartly and colorfully scored, thematically appealing, and approachable without ever pandering. The Viola Concerto and Oboe Concerto are especially effective, exploiting the unique timbres of the solo instrument with great sensitivity. They are also quite different from each other. The Viola Concerto adopts the standard, three-movement structure, with the finale alternately solemn and dance-like (sound clip). The Oboe Concerto, on the other hand, plays in a single movement a bit less than twenty minutes long, an ideal length that ensures a piece that’s not too fatiguing for either the player or the listener.

All Things Majestic is a four-movement suite with each movement inspired by some feature of the American landscape. There are, to be frank, lots of similar pieces by American composers, and you would be hard pressed to point to stylistic qualities that say “Higdon” as opposed to quite a few of those others, but once again there’s no denying the quality of workmanship throughout. The performances, too, do the music proud, with Roberto Diaz (viola) and James Button (oboe) the excellent soloists, and Giancarlo Guerrero leading the Nashville Symphony with unflagging enthusiasm. A beautifully produced disc, all around.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Brilliant young guitarist Vladimir Gorbach, first-prize winner of the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition in 2011, has constructed a programme to showcase the variety and versatility of his instrument. Piazzolla’s Estaciones porteñas are richly evocative seasonal portraits vested with his indelible sense of verve. Scarlatti’s inexhaustible sonatas are increasingly popular in guitar transcription, the four here showing his originality and dexterity, whilst Giuliani’s Rondoletto is full of dazzling escapades for the guitar. Vicente Asencio’s Collectici íntim is drenched in vibrant Spanish colours and rhythms.

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Artists:
Bram van Sambeek bassoon
Joost Bosdijk bassoon
Ellen Corver piano
Rick Stotijn double bass
Izhar Elias guitar
Marieke Schneemann flute
Sven Figee Hammond organ
Maria-Paula Majoor violin
Marijn Korff de Gidts drums

Repertoire:
• Böddecker: Sonata sopra la Monica (1651)
• Rossini:Three arias from Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816)
• Saint-Saëns: Sonata Op.168 (1921)
• Gubaidulina: Duo Sonata (1977)
• Piazzolla: Café 1930 (1986)
• Dubois: Sonatine Tango (1984)
• Corea:Trio (1968)
• Hagen: Harlem Nocturne (1939)

A more insanely varied program will be hard to find. ”Dutch Music Prize” winner Bram van Sambeek selected an extremely diverse repertoire, spanning 400 years, in which the bassoon plays a prominent role: from the Baroque elegance of Böddecker, through virtuoso variations of Rossini and Saint-Saëns, to the fascinating world of 20th century bassoon music by Gubaidulina, Piazzolla and Chick Corea: a true kaleidoscope!

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This thoroughly recommendable issue is most welcome on CD, where its appreciable attributes can be even more clearly heard. Each singer has been carefully chosen for his or her task, and the contrast in timbres is, for the most part, illuminating. My single reservation concerns Heather Harper whom I now find a little cool for Sheherazade, in spite of the obvious distinction of her phrasing, but then this cycle isn't that well suited to Boulez's talents for stereoscopic precision and minute calculation. The other three singers have hardly been bettered as interpreters of their songs, and Boulez and his BBC and Parisian colleagues play throughout with delicacy combined with pinpoint accuracy. The recordings, made at different times in the 1970s and 1980s, are finely balanced. So I am as enthusiastic about the disc as I was back in 1984, if not more so.

-- Gramophone [4/1987]

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HAYDN: ORGAN CONCERTOS NOS 1,

This is not a historical recording. Yet mysteriously the music is performed in an interpretation which is historically authentic down to the last detail. The key to this mystery is: The original performer was present at the recent recording session, but not physically: The music is heard on a modern Steinway. Never has music stored in the Welte-Mignon system sounded so "right" or so good. Thanks to TACET's much-praised recording technique, and because the Welte-Mignon memory system and sound production mechanism have now been newly adjusted for the first time by the leading expert in the field - and are thus able to meet TACET's requirements. (Welte-Mignon was invented in 1904.) the Welte-Mignon mystery can now speak to US without distortion.

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