Early, Classical and Beyond

The Danish composer Rued Langgaard (1893–1952) is a new name to me, but if the music on String Quartets Vol.1 (DACAPO 6.220575) is anything to go by then I’ve really been missing something. Denmark’s Nightingale String Quartet is simply superb in this first volume of a series of all nine quartets by a composer described in the excellent booklet notes as an eccentric outsider who was virtually ignored by the Danish musical establishment in his lifetime. The works are essentially in the late romantic style, but mixed with a startling modernity: listen to Train Passing By, the short second movement of String Quartet No.2, written in 1918 and revised in 1931, and you could swear you were listening to two minutes of Philip Glass or Steve Reich; the following slow movement, Landscape in Twilight, is a simply beautiful pastoral episode. The String Quartet No.3 from 1924, the quite lovely single-movement String Quartet No.6 from 1918 (Langgaard’s numbering system is quite confusing!) and the variations on the chorale melody Mig hjertelig nu laenges complete a revelationary CD.

Beautifully recorded at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and issued on Denmark’s national record label, these performances are as close to definitive as you can get. Wonderful stuff, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the series.

The chamber music of the Irish composer Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty (1879–1941) is featured on the 2-CD set Hamilton Harty String Quartets & Piano Quintet, performed by Australia’s Goldner String Quartet and pianist Piers Lane (Hyperion CDA67927). Dating from the opening years of the 20th century, all three works — the String Quartets in F Major (1900) and A Minor (1902) and the Piano Quintet in F Major (1904, revised 1906) — are virtually unknown today, the second string quartet and the piano quintet apparently remaining unheard from the year of their premieres until the present recording. Like so much British music of the period, these are highly competent and really lovely works, given absolutely beautiful performances here. There are the expected hints of Mendelssohn and Brahms, but it’s Harty’s love of Russian music that seems to predominate, particularly with the echoes of Borodin in the quartets. The faultless recording quality and the excellent booklet notes make this a very attractive set.

The Jasper String Quartet is back with another volume in their excellent series of string quartets by the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis, this time pairing Kernis’ String Quartet No. 1 “Musica Celestis” from 1990 with Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet in The Kernis Project: Schubert (Sono Luminus DSL-92152). I enthusiastically reviewed the earlier volume pairing a Kernis quartet with a Beethoven quartet some time ago, and have no hesitation in being just as enthusiastic this time around. The performances are top-notch, and the recording quality is equally good. If you don’t know this series, then you’re really missing something; apart from anything else, it is all the proof you could ever need that there are contemporary composers adding magnificent and significant works to the string quartet repertoire.

The Brilliant Classics label lives up to its name once again with a 2-CD reissue of the excellent 1990 recordings by The Britten Quartet of the String Quartets Nos. 1-4 by the English composer Sir Michael Tippett (2CD 9257). Tippett’s life (1905–1998) spanned almost the entire 20th century, and his quartets come from both ends of his creative career: Quartets Nos.1-3 are from 1934–1946; Quartet No.4 was written in 1977–78. The composer’s early obsession with Beethoven’s quartets can be discerned, but it is Tippett’s characteristic emphasis on line and counterpoint — especially in the earlier quartets — that stands out.

The six string quartets of Bela Bartók comprise arguably the most significant series in that genre since the Beethoven quartets, and the Dutch mid-price label Newton Classics, distributed here by Naxos, has reissued a 2-CD set of Bartók: String Quartets Nos.1-6 in the 1975 recordings by the Guarneri Quartet originally issued by Sony (8802111). The Guarneri Quartet was in top form in these performances of works which span Bartók’s entire career, and the set — especially at the price — can be recommended without reservation. The original recording and transfers are all excellent. 

Tune thy Musicke to thy Hart
Stile antico; Fretwork
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807554

Tudor and Jacobean music for private devotion has long been neglected by early music performers. Here is a selection of composers who reveal why that neglect cannot be justified.

Stile antico rises to the sumptuous demands of Thomas Tomkins’ O praise the Lord with its 12-part texture reminding us of polyphony’s own past glories. Immediately afterwards Fretwork make its instrumental presence felt through its experienced viol-playing in O ye little flock by the all-but forgotten John Amner. Indeed, on occasions the deep, hollow resonance of Fretwork’s playing makes one almost forget that viols are the only instruments involved: listen to Robert Parsons’ second In Nomine.

Then there are the hymns that give the lie to the myth that England was a Protestant country at ease with its spirituality. Thomas Campion’s Never weather-beaten sail may indeed be a prayer of relief for those surviving a voyage. It may also be a prayer of relief by the Catholic Campion for his own survival in an age when his namesake Saint Edmund Campion died a cruel death for his faith. That death, in fact, is the subject of a song by William Byrd on this very CD.

Although some might say this collection is melancholic, divine and spiritually uplifting are the fitting adjectives.

Lawes – The Royal Consorts
Les Voix Humaines
ATMA ACD2 2373

England’s Civil War claimed the life of William Lawes in 1645. Charles I, to whom Lawes was extremely loyal, described him as “the Father of Music.” The ten Royall Consorts date from the early 1630s, but were still being played from hand-written scores in 1680.

All ten are performed here by the seemingly limited combination of violin, viola da gamba and theorbo. And yet from the first notes it is clear that we are to be treated to compositions that display the versatile capabilities of these same instruments. The two Fantazies alone prove this.

In fact, the clear majority of the movements in the consorts are named after the stylized dance movements of the Baroque. The pieces here would hold their own among any contemporary baroque entertainment. Take, for example, the spirited violin playing in the Alman, Corant and Saraband that conclude Consort 10.

Lawes even includes a galliard and six pavans in the Royall Consorts; perhaps he or his clients felt nostalgia for the best-known renaissance dances. The delicate pavan at the start of Consort 9 tests all the musicians.

Overall, Lawes’ music challenges the idea that England’s Golden Age of Music ended in 1620; surely he would have greatly influenced the course of 17th century English music had he lived?

Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No.4
Alain Lefèvre; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Kent Nagano
Analekta AN 2 9288

This concerto is at once a reminder of Rachmaninov’s consistent and recognizable musical language. The style of lush orchestral washes led by strings against broad piano chords reminds the listener of familiar passages in the previous concertos. There is, however, a new element of modernity in this work that for Rachmaninov seems to have been a long time in coming.

Pianist Alain Lefèvre is a powerful player. At the keyboard he creates the kind of Lisztian fear that instruments must surely have when they’re about to be shaken to the core. He is an exemplar of the player that the Rachmaninov Fourth needs. Nothing less will do. Lefèvre and Nagano explode out of the starting gate with so much energy that it’s tempting to think your CD player has started the final movement by mistake. They make the perfect team required to navigate Rachmaninov’s new polyrhythms strewn throughout the work. They embrace the numerous harmonic collisions without reservation and offer a highly charged performance that sets the heart racing. In all, this performance can actually be a little disturbing for anyone unaccustomed to hearing Rachmaninov’s dark side so eloquently referenced here by Lefèvre and Nagano.

By contrast, and a well-programmed one it is, Scriabin’s Prometheus draws the OSM into repertoire it does so well. While of the same generation, Scriabin turns Rachmaninov’s flirtations with modernism into a full nuptial embrace. It’s all here, the French school of the early 20th century excited with rich colours on broad canvas and using every potential offered by the piano to gild the orchestral palette.

Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
Orchestre de la Francophonie;
Jean-Philippe Tremblay
Analekta AN 2 9998

To my mind, there are few major orchestral works that embody the spirit of early romanticism better than the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. Completed in 1830, this monumental work was subtitled “Episode in the Life of an Artist,” and tells of a lovesick young musician who attempts to poison himself with opium. The drug doesn’t prove strong enough to cause death, but instead, only creates fantastic visions, all of which are glowingly portrayed throughout the symphony. And who better to interpret this myriad of ever-contrasting moods than the Orchestre de la Francophonie under the direction of Jean-Philippe Tremblay on this new Analekta recording? The Ottawa-and-Montreal-based ensemble was founded in 2001, and since then has gone on to earn an enviable reputation as one of North America’s most vibrant youth orchestras. I’ve asked the question, “Do French musicians best interpret French music?” before, and the question is still open to debate. Nevertheless, in this case it certainly doesn’t hurt, for the OF’s performance is splendid.

From the cautious and hesitant mood of the opening measures, Tremblay demonstrates a full command of the score, coaxing a warm and expressive sound from the orchestra. We can truly feel the despair of the love-stricken young man! The second movement finds our hero at a ball, and the music is appropriately light and graceful. Following the placid “Scene in the Meadows” comes the sinister “March to the Scaffold,” where the talents of the wind and brass sections of the OF are shown to full effect. The exuberant finale  — “Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath” — is all at once grotesque, exhilarating and terrifying. Here, the OF “pulls out all the stops,” bringing the mad frenzy to a rousing conclusion.

This is indeed an exemplary interpretation of a musical landmark — felicitations to Jean-Philippe Tremblay and the OF. Hector would surely have approved!