Classical Music

Léon Boëllmann died young, and of his 160 works only the magnificent Suite Gothique for organ was able to establish itself in the concert world. As a result, priceless treasures await rediscovery in his oeuvre. Reinforced by Gérard Caussé on the viola, the Trio Parnassus presents three chamber works by this French late romantic composer who has no reason to seek the shade in the shining light of the creations of his friends Saint-Saëns and Fauré.

"Leon Boellmann is known chiefly as an organ composer, but he also wrote piano and orchestral works and contributed to the revival of French chamber music during the course of his short life: he was born in 1862 and died in 1897. These two pieces are quite original and well-crafted. The quartet opens over rather strange, murky textures with a striding piano theme which it develops effectively...the manner here suggests Franck. Almost as inevitably, it is the spirit of Saint-Saens that hovers, not to the music's disadvantage, over the scherzo...The Trio is more advanced in every way, not least in the enterprising formal design as well as in the more advanced chromatic harmony. Boellmann was a fine musician, and this is not organists' music in any pejorative sense: rather, he used great mastery of the materials of music to explore a modest but distinctive lyrical manner."

-- J.W., Gramophone [11/1993]

Carmen made Georges Bizet world famous, but he lived only a few months to enjoy the overwhelming success of this opera depicting love and jealousy among hot-blooded Spaniards. A swim in the cold Seine did him in. Today hardly anybody remembers that Bizet also composed piano music. To our good fortune, Johann Blanchard’s inventory of his rarities cabinet has yielded more new discoveries that will make the hearts of music lovers beat faster-while the lastest recording technology will have the same effect on those of audiophiles. Bizet was an outstanding pianist who already at the age of ten enjoyed the privilege of instruction at the Paris Conservatory- including lessons in composition. And so it is not surprising that his works for piano represent the very best of their times. Already the “Grande Valse de Concert” that the sixteen-year-old boldly labeled his Opus 1 and the “Premiere Nocturne” op. 2 composed during the same year display the genuinely orchestral design so typical of Bizet’s piano music.

Ninety-one years and a turn of century later, Alban Berg's String Quartet Op. 3 no longer shocks as it once did, but rather sounds more and more like an accessible piece of finely wrought chamber music. That's not to say it contains stretches of "Hum-um-umable melody" (to quote Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along), but with careful and repeated listening the ear discerns motifs and harmonic patterns where formerly there seemed naught but noise. Such revelations are greatly aided by the Leipzig String Quartet's generously romantic approach both to this and to the Lyric Suite. Its warm legato and passionate phrasing humanize and romanticize Berg's highly personal masterpieces, both created in connection with love affairs. This is in marked contrast to the Galimir Quartet's strident and angular performances on Vanguard, which place Berg more firmly in the epoch of the Second Viennese School. But the Leipzigers are capable of much fierce energy too, especially in the more explosive moments of the Lyric Suite, which they play with fearless alacrity.


The disc also includes Webern's brief (even for him) Three Pieces for String Quartet, featuring the ethereal singing of Christiane Oelze in the second piece, a setting of one of the composer's poems. At two minutes and ten seconds, it's over before you realize it, but even the much longer Berg works have this effect, thanks to the stunning Leipzig Quartet performances, recorded in top-drawer sound by MDG.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

GODARD Piano Trios: in g, op. 32; in F, op. 72. Jocelyn: Berceuse • Parnassus Tr • MDG GOLD 3031615 (59:47)


Listening to these two piano trios by Benjamin Godard (1849–95), one would never guess that he trained as a violinist under Henri Vieuxtemps at the Paris Conservatory. I say this because both works are launched by a storm of piano passagework so turbulent as to leave Mendelssohn hanging on for dear life at the dock. From this one might understandably surmise that Godard was one of the great keyboard virtuosos of the 19th century, though such was not the case. This is music that is strangely beautiful and beautifully strange, which makes it difficult to describe, so perhaps some background will help.


The Jewish Godard was born in Paris at a time when opera was all the rage and when piano and violin giants—Alkan, Chopin, Liszt, Paganini, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, etc.—filled Parisian salons and concert halls to overflowing. Godard, like his slightly earlier French Jewish compatriots Meyerbeer and Halévy, sought fame and fortune in the opera house, writing at least eight operas, only one of which, Jocelyn , seems to have had any staying power. Unlike Meyerbeer and Halévy, however, Godard did not place all or most of his eggs in one basket. He was highly prolific in a number of genres, composing a surprisingly large number of works considering his relatively short life of 46 years. Among his output are concertos for violin and piano—a Naxos recording of the violin concertos with Chloë Hanslip was reviewed by Ian Lace in Fanfare 31:6—ballets, overtures, three symphonies, three string quartets, sonatas for violin and cello, the two piano trios on this disc, plus numerous songs and solo piano pieces. Yet out of more than 150 works, Godard is today remembered mainly for the Berceuse from his opera Jocelyn , added as an encore at the end of the current CD. It might also be mentioned that Godard was openly hostile to Wagner and outspokenly critical of the German composer’s anti-Semitism.


It’s too easy, perhaps intellectually lazy even, to cite Mendelssohn and Schumann as the only influences in Godard’s music and to just leave it at that, for there’s much more going on here. Take, for example, the rolling, roiling turbulence that opens the 1884 Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major. Franck’s A-Major Violin Sonata was still two years in the offing, but it’s uncanny how closely Godard’s writing presages the beginning of the second movement in Franck’s sonata. There is also a degree and a type of chromaticism in this score that would not have occurred to Mendelssohn or Schumann and that is more common to the French school; I’m thinking particularly of Fauré, who, after all, was born five years before Godard.


Like most works of its genre and period, a second theme, quieter and more lyrical in nature, is introduced. But here is where I believe Godard is at his weakest. The desire and the impulse are there, the gesture sincere, but the ability to craft a memorable melody eludes him, and what emerges in its place is a kind of soft-shoe, salon-style music that bides its time until the next storm surge washes away the cucumber and cress sandwiches. Listen, for example, beginning at 4:20 in the first movement, and then to the violin’s entrance 10 seconds later.


The Piano Trio No.1 in G Minor dates from 1880 and was, at one time, quite popular. Again, the piece opens in a state of tumult, with restless, agitated passagework in the piano. Here, the Mendelssohn influence is a bit more pronounced. Listen, for example, beginning at 1:54 in the first movement, to the second theme that unfolds like a Mendelssohnian song without words. The Leipzig composer is also conjured up in Godard’s Tempo di Menuetto, which is actually a moderately paced scherzo. But these good-natured elves sound more like oafs, hiccupping and clumsily tripping over each other as if they’ve had a bit too much to drink.


I might question the Parnassus Trio’s violinist, Yamel Yu, and cellist, Michael Gross, for overdoing it a bit on the portamentos in the Andante quasi Adagio and elsewhere. The potted plant is leafy enough; fertilizer is not needed. As note author Martin Bernklau observes, “The way Godard’s lyrical talent sometimes borders on sentimentality in the slow movements probably engendered a favorable response in the salons.”


The concluding Allegro vivace provides further evidence of French influences in Godard’s music that tend to dilute the prima facie Mendelssohn/Schumann argument, for here we have a clear example of the cyclic techniques favored by Berlioz, Franck, Saint-Saëns, and Liszt. The trio’s last movement begins with the same material that began the first movement. Godard then transforms it harmonically and rhythmically in true cyclic fashion.


As salon pieces go, the Berceuse from Jocelyn , in Bernklau’s words, “is certainly not kitsch despite its popularity. It is a little gem whose tender melodic beauty has survived more than a century.”


Most record labels are proud to trumpet first-ever recordings. That MDG doesn’t do so in this case suggests to me that previous recordings of Godard’s piano trios may have once existed. Currently, however, I find no other listings. As hinted at above, I wasn’t particularly thrilled by the Parnassus Trio’s somewhat raffish readings; I could imagine this music being played more tastefully and with greater refinement by a French ensemble that better understood the musical aesthetic of Godard’s time and place. But we’re not likely to get another recording of these works anytime soon, and technically, the Parnassus Trio is an exceptionally fine ensemble whose many excellent performances on MDG—trios by Lalo, Philipp Scharwenka, and Rheinberger—I’ve been enjoying for a number of years. Recording, as always with this label, is outstanding. In the absence of perhaps more idiomatic readings, this is definitely recommended, especially to those who enjoy exploring the nooks and crannies of 19th-century chamber music.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins


Although Benjamin Godard's prolific output is represented today primarily by the Berceuse from his opera Jocelyn, his two piano trios are anything but salon fluff. Each four-movement work fully taps the medium's textural potential, with plenty of melodic interest, well-sustained development, and witty touches, such as the deft alterations from triple to duple time in the G minor Trio Minuetto and the hushed exchanges between the piano's broken chords and the pizzicato strings in the F major Trio's Allegro vivace finale (letter L in my copy of the Durand score).

The Trio Parnassus pretty much matches the high standards it set in its excellent Schumann recordings for MDG. The musicians are especially responsive to the Adagio movements' long, unfolding narratives, and generally take Godard's explicit dynamic directives on faith. Ideally I'd prefer faster, more effervescent and sharply characterized finales than what the Trio Parnassus delivers, but the ensemble still makes a strong case for reviving these works. In the absence of an earlier, out-of-print edition on Koch Schwann featuring the Trio Ma Non Troppo, the Trio Parnassus has no current catalog competition here. Recommended.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

On the "Manfred Bürki" Steinway concert grand piano, built in 1901 the highly praised Trenkner-Speidel Piano Duo presents Ludwig van Beethoven's Seventh Symphony arranged for piano four-hands by Xaver Schwarwenka, who must have been waiting for such a perfect instrument for its progressive and opulent piano texture. Moreover, this CD presents Beethoven's own arrangement of the Great Fugue. With boundless energy, Evelinde Trenkner and Sontraud Speidel celebrate an enthralling and stirring Beethoven festival. - MDG-Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm

The Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn concludes its complete recording of the symphonies of the composer whose name it bears with an absolutely rousing performance. The spirited Seventh Symphony brings together everything that General Music Director Stefan Blunier has demanded of his musicians from the very beginning of this cycle: emotional depth, gripping rhythms, frenetic energy, and powerful tension holding the audience in suspense even after the last chord has faded away. Prior to this work, however, the Bonn musicians show the Fourth Symphony in an entirely new light: no longer a bashful “wallflower,” it shines in its own special way between its two more famous neighbors.

BEETHOVEN String Quintets: op. 4; op. 29 • Leipzig Qrt; Barbara Buntrock (va) • MDG GOLD 1715 (67:35)


What magical performances these are! Certainly, far better than the recording of op. 29 by the Fine Arts Quartet with Gil Sharon on second viola (Naxos 8.57221), which for some reason is a preferred version of some other reviewer on ArkivMusic, but even finer than this same pairing by musicians from the Nash Ensemble on Hyperion 67693. Indeed, one would have to acquire the 10-CD set of the complete string music by the Endellion Quartet (Warner 517450) to find performances that could equal or better these.


As my colleague Jerry Dubins said in reviewing the Nash Ensemble CD in Fanfare 32:5, the edge comes from a quartet that has been together for years, knowing the style and finding effective ways of presenting the music. The Leipzig Quartet has been around since 1988, so the players are veterans at this, and it shows. Both quintets are played in a style I would call masterly but relaxed, very similar to one of my favorite but lesser-known chamber groups, the Lindsay Quartet. This shows not only in the early op. 4 quintet, which they manage to make sound playful and almost tongue-in-cheek (which some of it probably was), but also in op. 29, which they invest with a drive in the outer movements and an almost mysterious quality in the long Adagio. Irmlind Capelle, in the liner notes, says that the op. 29 quintet is all about “sound” and the tonal possibilities of a string quintet, “not concise themes and their elaboration.” But concise or not, the Leipzig Quartet makes something genuinely interesting, noble, even occasionally dramatic of this quintet. This is the first time I have ever heard it in a way that makes me feel that it does indeed belong somewhere near the quality of his middle string quartets. Bravo, Leipzig!


I should make some comment, I suppose, about violist Barbara Buntrock, but really, the highest compliment I can pay this young woman is to say that her playing fits right in with the Leipzig musicians. That is no small feat, to play with an established quartet and become a part of it; it requires great ears, good musical instincts, and lots of practice. I would also like to say that although I have had occasion to complain of MDG’s sometimes goopy sound quality in other releases, the Leipzig Quartet is recorded with a splendid acoustic, slightly resonant but not unduly so, which makes the string playing sound neat and crisp when it should be. A bravo to engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Rödding.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Classical Music

BEETHOVEN Septet in E?. Sextet in E? • Consortium Classicum • MDG 3010594 (60:02)


Of the two works on this disc, the Septet for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass, has gained a firm foothold in the repertoire with some 40 recordings currently listed. Begun in 1799, it’s an early work, as indeed are all of Beethoven’s works for winds alone or for winds with strings, despite some misleadingly high opus numbers resulting from later publication dates.


Less often recorded, and a bit of an oddity in the composer’s catalog, is the Sextet for two horns and string quartet, op. 81b. Like the Septet, it too was written in the mid 1790s. Though it shares a common opus number with the much later-composed “Les Adieux” Piano Sonata, op. 81a, the two works are not related.


Beethoven never wrote anything like the Sextet again, but the real puzzle of the piece lies in how to classify it. Divertimento-type works scored for two horns and a string quartet were not uncommon in the latter part of the 18th century, and both Haydn and Mozart wrote for this complement of instruments. But it’s in the way Beethoven writes for the horns that makes the Sextet so unusual. It’s almost as if he conceived the piece as a chamber concerto for two horns with the accompaniment reduced to the four essential supporting string voices, not entirely unlike Mozart’s downsizing of some of his early piano concertos for performance à quattro —by a string quartet accompanying the solo piano.


In the Sextet, the horns are the stars of the show, with brilliant fanfares and lots of technically challenging busywork, while the four strings are relegated to a subsidiary role, coming to the fore only long enough for the horn players to catch their breath. The piece is also in three movements (fast-slow-fast), rather than the more common multimovement wind and mixed wind-and-strings chamber works of the period, further reinforcing the chamber concerto notion.


Whatever the Sextet is or Beethoven intended it to be, it’s an interesting experiment from the composer’s early curiosity shop but not a memorable masterpiece. Not so the Septet, which is surely one of Beethoven’s most expansive and important early works. Its exceptional popularity in the composer’s own lifetime, overshadowing later works he considered superior, is reported to have caused him considerable annoyance. Nonetheless, with an eye on the cash register, in 1803 or thereabouts he arranged the op. 20 Septet for clarinet (or violin), cello, and piano, and published it as op. 38. This is not the same piece as another trio Beethoven wrote in B?-Major for this same combination of instruments, nicknamed the “Gassenhauer” Trio, op. 11, which is often included in its violin version as No. 4 of the composer’s standard canon of piano trios.


Founded by clarinetist Dieter Klöcker in the early 1960s, Consortium Classicum has distinguished itself as one of the world’s leading chamber ensembles, acclaimed especially for its performances of 18th- and 19th-century repertoire for winds. But as is clear from these performances recorded in 1994, string players are no strangers to the group. Why this MDG CD has only now arrived for review I can’t say for sure, but I suspect it has been available abroad for many years and is just now being distributed here in the U.S. But the Consortium has recorded the Septet and Sextet more than once, and this is not the same 1974 pairing of these works on a cpo CD reviewed by Richard A. Kaplan in Fanfare 30: 5.


The Consortium’s execution is clean and sharply focused and the recording, as is customary for MDG, is brightly lit and very well balanced, clearly delineating each instrument. I find this to be a most enjoyable and recommendable CD. Still, if this particular coupling appeals to you, I wouldn’t want to suggest that the Consortium Classicum is preferable to two other very fine identically programmed discs, one with the Gaudier Ensemble, now on Hyperion’s mid-priced Helios label, and the other with the estimable Nash Ensemble on the unfortunately not so inexpensively priced ASV Gold label. In both cases, I find the playing a bit more spirited and perhaps more spontaneous than I do the Consortium Classicum’s performances. But the Septet, despite Beethoven’s dismay at its popularity, is popular for good reason and well worth having in more than one version. So, recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Elisabeth Leonskaya is one of today’s leading pianists and she is celebrated throughout the world. Her many recordings attest to her high rank and these have been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque, Prix Caecilia, Diapason d’Or and an international MIDEM award.

Beethoven’s five sonatas for violoncello and piano form a cosmos all of their own. They exemplarily represent this Titan’s three compositional periods, and the interrelations between them shape a surprisingly self-contained work group surveying the composer’s entire life. Reason enough for Manuel Fischer-Dieskau and Connie Shih to present an absolutely new recording of this cycle. The two early Sonatas op. 5 show us the impetuous “wild youth” who delights in playing with fresh Viennese influences. There are reminiscences of courtly Baroque music, Viennese classicism is in full flower, and the boy from small-town Bonn shows the Viennese just how things can and should be done. The Sonata op. 69, a principal work among the compositions of his “middle period,” is considerably more concentrated. Here the piano and cello vie with great seriousness to see which one will leave its mark on the character of the piece. And then we have the two Sonatas op. 102. Beethoven’s enigmatic, often unwieldly late oeuvre begins with this pair of sister works, and it is surely no coincidence that it is not until the last Sonata op. 102,2 that a slow movement takes shape in which the cello is allowed to develop its lyrical potential. Manuel Fischer-Dieskau and Connie Shih dedicate themselves to this opus magnum with passion and play a brilliant game of musical catch.

Lionel Tertis is regarded as “the father of the viola.” Although he was not its inventor, he was the first musician to concertize internationally as a soloist on this marvelously multifaceted instrument and to inspire leading composers to produce music for it. While retracing this violist’s path, Christian Euler chanced on three English compositions by Bliss, Bax, and Vaughan Williams and is now presenting these rediscoveries with the pianist Paul Rivinius. The works could not be more different and display the viola’s overwhelming potential in all its great breadth.