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Korngold: String Quartets 1-3, Piano Quintet Op 15 / Sigfridsson, Aron Quartett
CPO · Jan 2010CD$36.99 -
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Reicha: Quintets for Winds & String Quartet / Consortium Classicum, Gulke, Wuppertal Symphony
MDG · Sep 2020CD$65.99 -
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MICHAEL JUROWSKI IN GOHRISCH
Melchers: Works for Orchestra / Martin, Gävle Symphony
Swedish composer Melcher Melchers (1882–1961) has been largely forgotten by music history. Melchers studied composition in Paris and his circle of friends included, among others, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Guillaume Apollinaire, Erik Satie, and members of Les Six. Among the Nordic composers he had the biggest impact on the French music life but his aesthetics in music were quite conservative: d’Indy, Chausson and César Franck were his greatest influences. This album by the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jaime Martín includes Melchers’ magnum opus, his finely crafted Symphony in D minor, Op. 19 together with world première recordings of two symphonic poems.
REVIEW:
Melcher Melchers' music can be described as traditional with a French accent. Initially he gravitated towards German Late Romanticism, but the French influence exerted a decisive pull, and he became influenced by César Franck, Debussy, Ravel, Satie and Les Six. His compositions include a symphony, symphonic poems, a violin concerto, two piano concertos string quartet, sonatas for violin and cello and twenty songs.
The disc opens with two strikingly contrasting symphonic poems, each receiving their world premiere recordings. The first was inspired by a painting by Peter Paul Rubens titled La Kermesse (1635–1638). It depicts an exuberant festival in the Flemish countryside. Melchers captures the atmosphere to perfection in this lighthearted, ebullient score. There are children playing, people dancing and food and wine flowing in abundance. The rhythmic abandon and colorful orchestration vividly convey the joie de vivre of the scene.
Élégie couldn’t be more different. Written a year before La Kermesse in 1919 it’s dedicated to the memory of the composer’s mother who had recently died. It didn’t, however, receive a premiere until 1924, when it was performed under the baton of Georg Schnéevoigt. Melchers employs dark, sombre sonorites to convey the solemn nature of the subject matter. A static quality pervades the music.
The three-movement Symphony in D minor is Melchers most important composition. Scored for a large orchestra, the work was written in 1925. The composer entered it for a competition a year later organized by the Stockholm Concert Society for the inauguration of a new concert hall in the city. It took second place to Kurt Atterberg’s vocal work Sången. From its first performance it elicited a positive response from the critics. The opening movement is the most extensive of the three. It brims over with drama and powerful climaxes. The contrasting lyrical moments convey an enchanted world of bucolic idyll. A beautiful slow movement overflows with melancholy and wistful regret. The finale recalls the festive mood of La Kermesse, joyous, optimistic and uplifting.
The Gävle Symphony Orchestra under Jaime Martín offer spirited and persuasive performances of these attractive works. They’ve been captured in the best possible sound.
-- MusicWeb International (Stephen Greenbank)
Mahler & Zemlinsky: Symphony No. 6
Artur Lemba: Chamber Music, Vol. 2
Ropartz: Piano Music / McCallum
Ropartz lived a long life into his nineties. He was born in Guingamp, Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany, into a wealthy family. He started off on the path of law but in 1885 entered the Paris Conservatory, where he studied harmony with Theodore Dubois and composition with Jules Massenet. It was around this time that he struck up a friendship with the Romanian composer Georges Enescu. In 1887 he entered the organ class of César Franck. In 1894 he moved to Nancy in the east of France, where he became director of the Conservatory, a post he held for the next twenty-five years. This was followed by a ten year stint (1919-29) in a similar position in Strasbourg. Retiring in 1929, he went on composing until 1953, when he was struck down with blindness. He died two years later.
Opening the disc is the suite Dans l’ombre de la montagne, the most substantial work here. The sombre narrative extends across all seven movements, with recurring motives throughout, providing an idée fixe. Ropartz takes his lead from Vincent d’Indy’s Poème des Montagnes, Op.15 and Promenades, Op. 7 by Albéric Magnard, both of which have been recorded by McCallum. She suggests that Ropartz makes direct reference to the d’Indy work in his title. The music throughout is generally of a bleak, thoughtful and reflective persuasion, with some respite being provided by the more animated and cheery fifth movement, marked ‘Ronde’. Stephanie McCallum’s performance of intensity and rhetorical eloquence has exceptional appeal.
Originally conceived as an orchestral work for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1929, Un Prélude Dominical et six pièces à danser pour chaque jour de la semaine is cast in a more joyous and optimistic vein than the previous work. The ballet characterizes each day of the week with its associated activities. The score showcases Ropartz’s more impressionistic style, and the music is awash in colour which McCallum imaginatively conveys in this piano arrangement which the composer made in 1930. I particularly like the reflective contrasts in Jeudi, the fifth movement. The jaunty swagger of Samedi brings this alluring suite to a close.
The Choral varié of 1904 clearly shows a Franckian influence, almost taking its lead from Franck’s organ chorales. Indeed, the piece was arranged for organ by Ropartz’s student and later colleague at Nancy, Louis Thirion. It consists of four variations on a chorale, each separated by a fermato, whose duration is stipulated by the composer. Having listened to the work several times, I can imagine its character more successfully expressed on the organ. The final two pieces La chanson de Marguerite: Caprice Valse and First-Love: Bluette of 1886, predate the composer’s contact with Franck. These seductively lyrical pieces have an endearing intimacy. McCallum's performances encapsulate the affability, genteel charm and captivating essence of these beguiling miniatures.
These are winning performances, warmly recorded, and make a strong case for both the attractiveness and quality of this composer’s music. Stephanie McCallum’s enthusiastic advocacy adds to the success of the mix. Peter McCallum’s detailed annotations, in English only, provide fascinating and informative background. Will there be any more of Ropartz’s piano music to come? Let's keep our fingers crossed.
– MusicWeb International (Stephen Greenbank)
Guarneri Quartet - The Complete RCA Victor Album Collection
In the early 1960s, four young musicians who had been playing chamber music at Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro School and Festival in Vermont were encouraged to form a string quartet. In July 1964, the Guarneri Quartet gave its first concert and less than a year later made its first recordings under contract to RCA Victor. For the next 45 years, with only one change of personnel, the Guarneris performed all over the world and amassed a large, wide-ranging, prize-winning discography. Sony Classical now presents, for the first time in a single collection, all the recordings made by the Guarneri Quartet for RCA between 1965 and 2005.
When the announcement came of its retirement at the end of the 2008–09 season, the eminent British critic Rob Cowan wrote a perceptive, affectionate tribute to the Guarneri Quartet in Gramophone, comparing it to the Juilliard Quartet, the other superb ensemble that had dominated the American quartet catalogue for so many years. Using their respective Bartók recordings as an example, he contrasted the “cut-glass precision” of the Juilliard’s early-60s set to the Guarneri’s “volatile, free-spirited, generously expressive and tonally rich” performing style in its RCA cycle from the mid-70s.
That characterization of the Guarneri Quartet’s playing runs through virtually all the reviews garnered in their long recording career, a story that began with the 1966 release of two of Mozart’s late “Prussian” Quartets and an album coupling Dvořák and Smetana. HiFi Stereo Review wrote that “not since the Juilliard String Quartet set the New York music world on its collective ear some 25 years ago has a new chamber group created such a furor as the Guarneri Quartet on the occasion of its New York début in February, 1965. This pair of discs demonstrates eloquently what all the shouting was about, for these players – Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, Michael Tree, and David Soyer – blend precision with flexibility of phrasing and rhythm in a way not often encountered in contemporary American string groups. Here, indeed, is the influence of the seed bed from which the quartet stems – the Marlboro of Rudolf Serkin, Alexander Schneider, and Pablo Casals … To the Smetana [‘From My Life’] the Guarneri Quartet brings blazing intensity and fierce rhythmic verve, while the wonderful slow movement of the Dvořák [Op. 105] comes forth from the stereo speakers with an almost orchestral lushness, yet with inner voices flawlessly balanced.”
Other critics concurred in their reviews of these two LPs: “The foursome produces an unfailingly luscious tone, plays with letter-perfect intonation, and displays all sorts of felicitous pinpoint balances and coloristic effects. And how these gentlemen stay together … even in the most wayward of tempo changes. In short, this is ensemble work of a transcendental variety … The Guarneri Quartet is the most gifted group of its kind I have heard in years” (High Fidelity). “This is distinguished Mozart playing indeed. Its technical excellence needs little comment: as with the Dvořák/Smetana record … last month, with this team you take technical mastery for granted as soon as you hear the first phrase, and straightaway it's the intensely musical quality of the playing which strikes you. Theirs is Mozart played with the classical virtues, above all with firm line, poise and sensibility. The surface of the music is polished, but how much the Guarneri Quartet find beneath” (Gramophone).
Arthur Rubinstein was the quartet’s longtime keyboard partner. In 1966, they recorded the Piano Quintets of Schumann and Brahms: “Rubinstein and the Guarneris search out to equally convincing effect the flowingly lyrical aspects of the music, and this yields special rewards in a ravishing slow movement [the Brahms]” (HiFi Stereo Review). Dvořák’s followed in 1971: “The performance is beautifully balanced between the gentleman at the keyboard and the gentlemen with strings, and the sense of give and take comes from the experience of many collaborations” (High Fidelity).
They also recorded the piano quartet literature, beginning in 1967 with “beautiful performances” (High Fidelity) of Brahms. Their reading of Fauré’s Op. 25 in C minor was judged (also by High Fidelity) to be “beautifully played and exquisitely well reproduced. The instrumental lines are wonderfully clear in this highly directional recording … Rubinstein displays his regal style.” And in a disc containing both of Mozart’s piano quartets, “the playing throughout both sides is extremely beautiful … and superbly integrated – at once expressive and elegant, making all of Mozart’s points with clarity, straightforwardness, and the exalted give-and-take that is the life’s breath of real chamber music. The recorded sound, too, is exceptional for its richness, balance, and clarity” (HiFi Stereo Review).
One of many other composers who feature prominently in Sony’s Guarneri collection is Haydn. About the ensemble’s 1977 recording of the two Op.77 quartets, HiFi Stereo Review wrote that “these spirited, attractive performances of Haydn's two greatest string quartets are marked by a sense of real involvement. Articulation is crisp, ensemble is impeccable, and there is an organic flow from the first phrase to the last in each work”, while Gramophone praised their “deeply thoughtful, powerfully paced” 1986 reading of Haydn’s Seven Last Words.
With reinforcement from the Budapest Quartet in 1965, the Guarneris produced an “absolutely stunning performance (HiFi Stereo Review) of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence sextet. In 1966, they recorded quartets by Mendelssohn and Grieg (the latter receiving its CD première in this set): “The Guarneri ensemble does itself proud throughout this disc – most notably in the Mendelssohn, in which they display a tonal homogeneity and a warmth of phrasing that are truly striking. It is as though one instrument, not four, were producing the lovely sound that emerges from the speakers. Happily, the RCA recording staff has come up here with a string quartet sonority of the utmost intimacy, yet endowed with just enough room tone to enhance the naturally warm tone of the Guarneris” (HiFi Stereo Review).
But the heart of any string quartet’s repertoire is inevitably the Beethoven cycle, and it is with these works that the Guarneris were most closely associated. They made their complete recording for RCA between 1966 and 1969. Gramophone described the Early Quartets as “elegant and buoyant, with well-chosen tempos, subtle bowing, crisp articulation, telling contrasts between staccato and legato, and a consistent sense of style.” HiFi Stereo Review enumerated the virtues of their Middle Quartets: “(1) excellent intonation; (2) glowing tone; (3) ensemble that is balanced and accurate but always flexible and natural; (4) superb phrasing and line-building; (5) good feeling for a high Beethoven style. These are strong and expressive readings that often achieve great poetic insight and a powerful dynamic impulse.” The HiFi Stereo Review’s critic rhapsodized over their Late Quartets: “If I had to make the choice of a very few records to take with me to a desert island, I’d choose recordings of the last five Beethoven string quartets. Now, with the arrival of this new album (complete with the Grosse Fuge) by the Guarneri Quartet, I’ve got my island package. All I need is the island. The Guarneri is, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary string quartets before the public these days: the group has an absolutely stunning sense of both soloistic and ensemble color. Indeed, I can’t think of another string quartet that can match them for sheer sensuous appeal.”
SUMMARY:
• With the first release of the Guarneri Quartet’ recording of Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 3, transferred and edited from the session reels using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology
• 9 quartet recordings for the first time on CD, transferred and mastered from the original analog tapes, 3 quartets remastered, using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology
• Includes collaborations with Arthur Rubinstein, Leonard Rose, Mischa Schneider, Pinchas Zukerman, Walter Trampler, Ida Kavafian, and more
• Original LP sleeves and labels, booklet with full discographical notes
BEETHOVEN: SONATAS FOR CELLO AND PIANO
Clarinet Concertos
GLASS: KING LEAR / VARIOUS
Jean-Marie Leclair: Violin Concertos, Vol. 1 - Op. 7, Nos. 1
Korngold: String Quartets 1-3, Piano Quintet Op 15 / Sigfridsson, Aron Quartett
KORNGOLD String Quartets Nos. 1-3; Piano Quintet 1 • Aron Qrt; 1 Henri Sigfridsson • CPO 777 436-2 (2 CDs: 103:24)
“I feel it—and can’t comprehend it—can’t retain it—and yet can’t forget it; and if I grasp it all, I can’t measure it. … No rule would fit it, and yet there was no error in it.”
Hans Sachs’s rumination from the act II “Fliedermonolog” of Die Meistersinger is a perfect summation of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music. At once gay yet wistful, familiar yet elusive, inviting yet unsettling, it aurally distilled all the complex contradictions of fin de siècle Vienna, preserving it for generations to come and carrying it into exile in America after the debacle of World War I. If the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. embody a carefree present moment, the works of Korngold preserve and nurture nostalgic memories of a lost past, ardently clinging and seeking to re-create those, that it might still dwell in them rather than an alien present.
The four works in this set, spanning almost a quarter-century from 1921 to 1945, offer refractions of those memories over a generation. The Piano Quintet and First String Quartet, composed almost simultaneously, present two decidedly different faces. The Quintet acts as if nothing has been lost; it is gay and brilliant, with unabashed romantic ardor emphasized by sweeping runs in the keyboard part. The outer movements are energetic, while the lyrical second movement employs an utterly haunting, gorgeous theme from Korngold’s song “Mond, so gehst du wieder auf” (Moon, Thus Risest Thou Again) from his op. 14 song cycle Lieder der Abschied (Songs of Farewell); once heard, it simply won’t leave one’s head. The First Quartet, by contrast, is more introspective and even melancholic at points; its backwards longing has a certain assertive determination to it. A far greater reliance on chromaticism and freer employment of spicy dissonance give it a constantly edgy, unsettled character, with an antsy, off-kilter Intermezzo and quirky Finale that includes a jaunty, almost Vaughan Williams-like march fragment as a second subject (Korngold inscribed the movement’s opening page with a quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It ).
The Second Quartet dates from the summer of 1933, near the close of a period of several years’ involvement by Korngold with operetta, and just before his first visit to Hollywood. It is a microcosm of melodic and harmonic devices that Korngold would employ so brilliantly in years to come as a composer of film scores. Given Hitler’s recent assumption of power in neighboring Germany, the first, second, and fourth movements would almost seem to be a perverse denial of reality. The opening Allegro epitomizes the skittish music of the Hollywood light romance; the Scherzo is all charming, gently smiling bustle; the Finale is, improbably, a witty, chatty waltz, but one of a decidedly un-Straussian character. All the more surprising, then, is the third-movement Larghetto, beginning with open harmonics like an icy chill (almost hinting at the Second Viennese School), eventually succeeded by a melody of melancholic yearning that seeks to cling to a wistfully remembered but unrecoverable comfort and security.
The Third Quartet dates from 1945, at a juncture in Korngold’s Hollywood exile when, dispirited by academic critical disdain and convinced his film scores were destined for oblivion, he had secretly decided to turn back to composition in more “serious” genres. Dedicated to a longtime friend and near neighbor in exile, the conductor Bruno Walter, it shows Korngold adopting a leaner, more astringent melodic and harmonic language. The melodic material is more fragmentary and questioning; the dissonances more frequent and unresolved. The scherzo has a jittery, almost neurotic character to its outer sections, as short, choppy interjections repeatedly disrupt an incipient moto perpetuo , from which a brief lyrical interlude provides only momentary relief. The slow movement bespeaks stifled grief and haunting bitterness over shattered hopes, with searing pain expressed by violins playing in the higher register as the viola and cello grind out clashing chords below. Only the finale, with its Stravinskian flavor and vigorously offbeat cascades of 16th notes, offers a somewhat hesitantly upbeat finale.
The only other complete set of the quartets is by the Flesch Quartet, originally recorded for ASV and now available on a budget reissue from Brilliant Classics. In Fanfare 23:2 Martin Anderson had high praise for its rendition of the Third Quartet and Sextet (the filler there instead of the Piano Quintet here). If those performances were more competitive, the budget price would tilt a recommendation toward the older set. However, the new cpo set completely outclasses its predecessor at every level, both interpretively and sonically. The Aron Quartet plays with immaculate ensemble and intonation, with far richer tone and irresistible zest and tenderness; the Flesch ensemble is almost lethargic in comparison, with its overall timings averaging almost 15 percent slower. (For example, the respective timings for the First Quartet movements are 7:26, 7:41, 4:42, and 8:07 vs. 8:47, 9: 56, 4:37, and 9:09.) Although its spirit may be willing, the Flesch is relatively weak. Henri Sigfridsson is a perfect teammate for the Aron players in the Quintet, which is likewise far ahead of rival versions such as the uninspired Marco Polo recording. The recorded sound is exemplary in every way. One complaint: This is shockingly short timing for a two-CD set. There is no reason that all three quartets could not have been put on a single CD, and another work such as the Piano Quartet included on the second disc. Nevertheless, this album is a stellar contribution to the ongoing and much needed Korngold renaissance, and is urgently recommended for all devotees of that once unjustly maligned but now belatedly appreciated master of late Romanticism.
FANFARE: James A. Altena
Friedrich Ernst Fesca: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1
F. E. FESCA String Quartets: No. 1 in E?, op. 1/1; No. 2 in F?, op. 1/2; No. 3 in B?, op. 1/3; No. 7 in a, op. 3/1; No. 8 in D, op. 3/2; No. 9 in E?, op. 3/3; No. 13 in d, op. 12; No, 15 in D, op. 34. Potpourri No. 2 B? for String Quartet, op. 11 • Diogenes Qrt • CPO 777482 (3 CDs: 207:02)
Reviewing a release (CPO 999869) of two symphonies by Friedrich Ernst Fesca in Fanfare 31:6, Patrick Rucker described him as a “symphonist,” and came to the conclusion that “though it’s doubtful that anyone would argue for an elevation of Fesca’s status above that of a Kleinemeister , this is music of considerable skill and charm.” I think something important wasn’t stated, there—namely, that Fesca wasn’t a symphonist. He was a concertmaster and first violinist by profession in court orchestras and chapels, but his compositional métier was chamber music, and especially the string quartet. As compared to the three symphonies he wrote very early in a highly successful career cut short by tuberculosis, he composed a total of 16 string quartets, not to mention four string quintets, four flute quartets, and a Flute Quintet.
And it was as a composer of string quartets that Carl Maria von Weber praised him in a published article in 1818. He notes that Fesca’s models were Mozart and Haydn, that he is “careful and richly spices” his harmonies, and “often modulates sharply, and swiftly, almost like Beethoven,” which is both shrewd and wide of the mark: both Beethoven and Fesca learned this from Haydn, and beyond Haydn, likely back to the more exploratory quartets of Gossec. Unlike Beethoven, he “feels too soft to … suddenly seize us with a bold, gigantic fist,” but “a certain intelligent deliberation marks his works, and is coupled with depth of feeling, avoids dryness, and brings about an uncommonly fine bearing in the character both of the whole and of the individual parts. He develops his ideas clearly and manifoldly, the four voices are independent.…” Weber notes a tendency towards what we term the quatuor brilliant , with a flashy first violin part, but that the other instruments aren’t demoted to secondary roles.
This first volume in a projected series of Fesca’s string quartets in general confirms Weber’s comments. I find little mature Mozart in the mix. On the other hand, Haydn appears less in the shape of harmonies and themes than in distant modulations, a tendency towards regular motivic transformation, and subtle elements held in common among all four movements of each work. Fesca also has the interesting trick (for lack of a better term) of crafting beautiful galant themes that he tags, either midway or at their conclusion, with short motifs. These latter can be varied and developed at will, as well as making a perfect way to bridge back to the themes, themselves, usually with several transformed elements.
Even the earliest works, believed to date from before or around his 20th year, demonstrate a mastery at handling what were by then the quartet’s movement structures that would remain in place for over a century. There is also at times a sense of playfulness at work—figures reversed, details that suddenly loom out of proportion, bridges that don’t end up where they traditionally should, thematic content from one movement inserted slyly into the accompaniment of another, etc.—though it almost never takes the form of Haydn’s famous false endings. Weber’s comment about four independent voices is only accurate in a limited sense. True, Fesca is willing to give the lead voice at any time to any of his instruments, but his greatest fault (at least, to modern ears) is a willingness at times to fall back on a lead with simple, repetitive bass accompaniment. That, too, was very characteristic of French quartets from the mid-18th through early 19th centuries.
What Weber in turn considers with typically Romantic regard for the individual as personally expressive reticence was probably just a pragmatic matter of writing for the largest audience without compromising standards; for make no mistake, Fesca was extremely popular during his lifetime. (His quartets continued to go through multiple editions after his death and through to the mid-century.) The one stylistic kicker in this three-disc set is the String Quartet No. 13 of 1819. It stands out from the rest both for its concentration on motivic transformation, even in the central movements, and for its tonal instability. Fesca as a rule enjoys exploring distant keys and recasting thematic content with different leads and slightly altered harmonies, but here he deliberately undercuts notions of the tonic not merely in bridges but within the themes themselves, leading to several moments of precarious tonality during the opening movement. Chromatic passages abound. It’s not later Schubert, by any means, but it is a curious sidelight that indicates one direction the composer might have pursued had he lived longer.
The Diogenes Quartet is a new name for me. They are all technically proficient if not expert, but slurs in some faster passagework commendably don’t cause them to take movements marked as presto or vivace any slower. Their tone is commendably lean, and their application of vibrato on held notes, and at cadences, warm. Founded in 1998, they apparently keep to a busy concert and recording schedule. (Their first volume of the Schubert quartets has recently been released on Brilliant Classics.) I’m glad to see that none of this has meant any less attention given to this music, and they perform it with the kind of loving detail one would expect to hear in works by the Bigger Names. They make an eloquent case for this music, and for the volumes that will follow.
FANFARE: Barry Brenesal
Auryn's Haydn: Op. 64 / String Quartets, Vol. 10 Of 14
Performers:
Matthias Lingenfelder, violin
Jens Oppermann, violin
Stewart Eaton, viola
Andreas Arndt, violoncello
Track Listing:
Disc One:
String quartet op. 64 no. 1, Hob. III:65 in C major
1. Allegro moderato
2. Menuet. Allegretto ma non troppo - Trio
3. Allegretto scherzando
4. Finale. Presto
String quartet op. 64 no. 2, Hob. III:68 in B minor
5. Allegro spiritoso
6. Adagio ma non troppo
7. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
8. Finale. Presto
String quartet op. 64 no. 3, Hob. III:67 in B flat major
9. Vivace assai
10. Adagio
11. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
12. Finale. Allegro con spirito
Disc Two:
String quartet op. 64 no. 4, Hob. III:66 in G major
1. Allgro con brio
2. Menuett. Allegretto - Trio
3. Adagio. Cantabile e sostenuto
4. Finale. Presto
String quartet op. 64 no. 5, Hob. III:63 in D major
5. Allegro moderato
6. Adagio. Cantabile
7. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
8. Finale. Vivace
String quartet op. 64 no. 6, Hob. III:64 in E flat major
9. Allegro
10. Andante
11. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
12. Finale. Presto
Timing: 139.48
Schubert: String Quartets, D. 887, D. 703
STEVE REICH: STRING QUARTETS
Reicha: Quintets for Winds & String Quartet / Consortium Classicum, Gulke, Wuppertal Symphony
Stenhammar: String Quartets No 5 & 6 / Stenhammar Quartet
STENHAMMAR String Quartets: No. 5 in C, op. 29, “Serenade;” in f; No. 6 in d, op.35 • Stenhammar Qrt • BIS 2009 (SACD: 65:20)
Here is the Stenhammar Quartet’s second installment in its survey of works for string quartet by the ensemble’s namesake composer, Wilhelm Stenhammar. It follows quickly on the heels of Volume 1, which was reviewed only in the last issue (37:3).
Much of what was said about the previous release applies to this one, and so soon after, needn’t be repeated. If you’re familiar with Stenhammar’s late-blooming Romantic idiom in general, and his string quartets in particular, the three works on this disc further reinforce the composer’s consistency in craftsmanship and style.
The three-way comparison I made last time in reviewing Volume 1 of this cycle, which contained the String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4, was between the Stenhammar, Oslo, and Gotland Quartets. Here, with the Nos. 5 and 6, the comparison is again between the Stenhammer and Oslo Quartets, and this time the Fresk Quartet in No. 5 and the Copenhagen Quartet in No. 6—the record label, Caprice, split the quartets up among three ensembles. So here are the results of the present comparison
Quartet No. 5
| Ensemble | I | II | III | IV | Total |
| Fresk Quartet | 5:07 | 7:30 | 1:54 | 4:14 | 18:45 |
| Oslo Quartet | 5:29 | 7:30 | 2:26 | 4:32 | 19:57 |
| Stenhammar Quartet | 5:13 | 7:29 | 1:58 | 4:15 | 18:55 |
Quartet No. 6
| Ensemble | I | II | III | IV | Total |
| Copenhagen | 7:48 | 2:44 | 7:48 | 6:02 | 24:22 |
| Oslo Quartet | 8:14 | 3:08 | 7:53 | 6:03 | 25:18 |
| Stenhammar Quartet | 7:12 | 2:44 | 8:08 | 6:00 | 24:04 |
The outcome is pretty much the same as before. The previous comparison found the Stenhammar Quartet taking a middle-of-the-road approach, tempo-wise, between the slightly quicker-paced Gotland Quartet and the generally slower-paced Oslo Quartet. That conclusion is reaffirmed here, even allowing for the two different ensembles, the Fresk and the Copenhagen, taking the place of the Gotland in the Fifth and Sixth Quartets, respectively. With minor exceptions, the Stenhammar’s timings fall in between those of the other ensembles, and end up closer in total to their Swedish (Fresk) and Danish (Copenhagen) counterparts than to their Norwegian (Oslo) colleagues.
It’s with good reason that Stenhammar’s circa 1910 Fifth Quartet carries the nickname “Serenade,” for it’s an easygoing, genial, breezy, spontaneous-sounding, melodious work that has much in common with Hugo Wolf’s much earlier (1887) Italian Serenade and Dag Wirén’s much later (1937) Serenade for Strings. But, personally, I find Stenhammar’s score prettier than the former and better put together than the latter; and it’s performed by the Stenhammar Quartet’s players with much warmth and affection.
By virtue of its minor key, the Sixth Quartet, dated 1916, is necessarily a somewhat less upbeat-sounding piece, but Stenhammar doesn’t seem to have had it in him to compose a dark, tragic-sounding work. The score frequently veers off into sunnier, major-key climes for lovely, song-filled melodies.
The unnumbered String Quartet in F Minor, date 1897, is an equally engaging piece, which, in its melodic contours and rhythmic patterns, more than occasionally calls Dvo?ák to mind. If you’re just beginning to explore Stenhammar’s string quartet output, I’d strongly suggest you start with this disc. The music is as ear-pleasing and emotionally satisfying as anyone could ask for, and the performances by this outstanding Scandinavian ensemble, complemented by BIS’s vibrant SACD recording, make this an unqualified recommendation.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
GABRIEL IRANYI: STRING QUARTETS EXTENDED
Martinu: String Quartets Vol 1 / Martinu Quartet
The first quartet, written in 1918, opens with a sweet folk melody in the viola over a sustained chord by the other players, the latter creating the tonal quality of a church organ. This dualism characterizes the music's essential blend, combining Martinu's Czech heritage with the harmony of French impressionism and a searching approach to tone color by the use of string harmonics and sudden shifts to pizzicato.
The Martinu Quartet took the composer's name in 1985. Specializing in the music of Czech composers, they have enjoyed international acclaim and awards. Both name and fame are merited by this recording of the string quartets.
SCHUBERT: THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS
Shostakovich: String Quartets 1–6
Norgaard: String Quartets 7, 8, 9 And 10 / Kroger Quartet
The String Quartet No.7 opens mysteriously “with faraway signal notes”. The music quickly gets more animated and unfolds through contrasting episodes characterised by capricious rhythms. The slow movement makes use of various techniques and is almost a study in microtonal writing. It creates harmonic and tonal ambiguity that is fairly quickly dispelled by the energy at play in the final movement in which we hear reminiscences from Nørgård’s Second String Quartet Quartetto Brioso composed in 1954 and revised in 1958. The Seventh String Quartet was written to celebrate the bicentenary of the Danish Royal Library, a rather improbable commission indeed considering that there is absolutely nothing academic in the music.
The String Quartet No.8 subtitled Natten sænker sig som røg (“Night Descending like Smoke”) was completed in 1997. Its five movements derive most of their thematic material from Nørgård’s Apollinaire-inspired opera Nuit des Hommes - available on DaCapo 8.226011 and reviewed here some time ago. The first movement opens with siren-like sounds before proceeding further with what is mostly a distorted rendering of a Danish hymn-tune and building to violent, final, climactic and heavily repeated chords. The second movement Man – Animal is a short brutal war-like Scherzo. The third movement Voyage suggests exactly that in various ways, mostly through rhythm. The fourth movement Night Descending, opening with a variant of the opening gesture in the preceding movement, is a sort of tense Nocturne which at times seems to come to a standstill. The final movement Epilogue – Elegy reverts to the material of the first movement albeit presented in a totally different way, “including the chorale, but now transformed or distorted into a lament” as well as brief reminders of material from the other movements. Nørgård’s Eighth String Quartet is one of the grimmest of works, but this should not surprise anyone who knows the opera on which the piece is based.
Completed a few years later, in 2001, the String Quartet No.9 subtitled Ind i kilden (“Into the Source” or “Into the Spring”) is again completely different from its immediate predecessors. Whatever the intended meaning of that subtitle - maybe “the further forward, the further backward” as suggested in the excellent insert notes accompanying this release - the music is far more approachable. It is full of typical Nørgård hallmarks and remains rather demanding, while ultimately rewarding.
Much the same can be said of the most recent work here, the String Quartet No.10 subtitled Høsttidløs (“meadow saffron”). It is in one movement and, again, is almost plain sailing – by Nørgård’s standards – when compared to the much more acerbic Eighth Quartet. The music here is mostly characterised by clarity and transparency. The very opening is a good example of such almost disarming new simplicity although much of the ensuing music is clearly from the same pen as that heard in the other quartets. This is a beautiful and engaging work and one likely to earn Nørgård new admirers.
The Kroger Quartet, for whom the Tenth Quartet was composed, play beautifully throughout and clearly have the full measure of the music Their committed and carefully prepared readings deserve only praise and admiration. The recorded sound is magnificent and the production of this release, particularly Jensen’s well-informed insert notes from which I have quoted, is first rate and well up to DaCapo’s best. This most welcome release is a must for all fans of this composer’s music. It usefully and splendidly completes Kontrapunkt’s recordings of the earlier string quartets. This is quite strong stuff but it is all well worth the effort.
-- Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International
Schubert: String Quartets Nos. 15 & 8 / Takács Quartet
The 'heavenly lengths' Schumann loved in late Schubert are as much in evidence in the sublime G major quartet as in the other large-scale works of Schubert's final years. The Takács Quartet's earlier Hyperion recordings of Schubert were hailed as 'near ideal' and 'superlative' and this new release is every bit as fine.
