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String quartets by Schulhoff - Sibelius - Janáček Three striking contributions to quartet literature in the first quarter of the 20th century: two rhythmically impulsive works that caused a sensation in the 1920s and, as a contrast, a lyrical confession from the turn of the century. Two flagship works from the avant-garde of the young Czechoslovak Republic, and in between the older, austerely introverted music of the great Finnish national composer, in which the boldness of his later years is already slumbering. Three temperaments, three ages, three forms of expression stand opposite each other, complement each other and give an idea of the wealth of perspectives of their epoch. Erwin Schulhoff – String Quartet No. 1 A brilliant pianist who occasionally plays his own pieces – that was Erwin Schulhoff's image until he made his breakthrough as a quartet composer. The five pieces from 1923, in which he dealt with Slavic folklore, inspired the Czechoslovak String Quartet (called the Zika Quartet after the first violinist Richard Zika and the cellist Ladislav Zika). This ensemble also played Schulhoff's latest quartet, which was ranked No. 3, at the Festival of the International Society for New Music in Venice on 1925 September 1. Virtuoso actions are immersed in an unreal light through tone color effects - playing with the mute, on the bridge, with the bow. In the Presto con fuoco dominate roughness, hardness, brittle shine of the clay. Empty fifths rage through the stage space, take possession of it and are counteracted by hissed comments. Im Allegretto with motorcycle and with malinconia grotesca (with a melancholy that touches on the grotesque) a silvery, fleeting, shivering accompaniment surrounds the melody. It's rhythmically gripping Allegretto giocoso alla Slovakia: a stylized dance alienated with an exotic interlude. Afterimages, shadows, reflections haunt the Andante molto sostenuto through the head: dreamy cadences over soft tremolos. A gentle wind that goes over the fields, touching the stalks. Schulhoff was in demand for a short time, received orders and was successful. In the 1930s, his working conditions deteriorated. He suffered from the nationality dispute in Czechoslovakia and lost his job as a radio pianist in 1939 as a Jew. Confident that the National Socialist occupation would end soon, he missed the opportunity to emigrate. In 1942 he died as a prisoner in an internment camp for foreigners on Wülzburg near Weißenburg in Middle Franconia. The finale of his last work written there, the 8th symphony, remained a fragment. Jean Sibelius – String Quartet in D minor, op. 56 »Voces intimae« Jean Sibelius's Quartet in D minor, begun around 1900 and completed in London in the spring of 1909, is a small-scale symphonic confessional work. It was premiered on April 25, 1910 at the Helsinki Music Institute with primarius Viktor Nováček, who had also worked with Sibelius as the soloist in the violin concerto. Call and answer open in the free Walking-Tempo the first movement, which extends to a unison crescendo Allegro very moderate accelerated: to a flowing movement that reaches out into the distance, transforms, pauses and gains in intensity with every new approach. In the Vivace, a rhythmic twist from the first movement is reworked, experienced anew and interspersed with pauses in silence. That is the emotional focus of the work Adage a lot. Its theme comes from a piano miniature, the Adagio in E from 1907. Here this idea develops into a quasi-orchestral movement of the highest expressive power. Three soft e-minor chords ring out in between, as if lost, as if they had fallen out of time. Sibelius described these to a friend as the secret keywords of his soul, as »voces intimae«. the following scherzo, Allegro (ma pesante), overcomes heaviness and gloom, sheds them and prepares the finale: Harsh unison passages and the nervousness of jumping arches, espressivo sound power and dance-like verve combine to create an intoxicating one Allegro. Leoš Janáček – String Quartet No. 1 »Kreutzer Sonata« While reading the works of Leo Tolstoy, Leoš Janáček felt itchy fingers. He made sketches for two operas: Anna Karenina (1907) and The living corpse (1916). They remained unfulfilled. The plot of the novel The Kreutzer Sonata (a madman tells in a railway compartment how he killed his wife because he could not bear to see her playing with someone else) inspired a Piano Trio (1908/09), which was lost – and his late First String Quartet . Like a film director, Janáček works here with fast cuts, builds up tension, creates an atmosphere of anxious expectation - and leaves it to our imagination to which situations of the novella he could specifically refer. In the first movement he jumps between lively Adagio (b–e–f sharp–e–d sharp–b) and con moto hin and her. In the second movement he surrounds an elegant theme with suspiciously scurrying demiquavers and transforms lovely iridescent tremolos into signs of fear. He provides the hesitant beginning of the 2rd movement with aggressive interjections. Mourning, he lets the opening melody of the first movement return in the finale – and takes a surprising turn: the tale of the madman no longer has any power; the hope for catharsis, for overcoming the violence lurking in human beings, becomes a hymn to life in all its fullness, contradiction and irretrievability. The premiere took place on October 17, 1924 in the Prague Mozarteum. The Czech Quartet played, to which the composer Josef Suk belonged as second violinist. There was a repeat on September 4, 1925 at the IGNM Festival in Venice with the Zika Quartet, the ensemble that had presented Schulhoff's First Quartet the day before. Michael Herrschel |
program:
erwin schulhoff (1894-1942)
String Quartet No. 1 (1924) 16: 35
[01] I. Presto con fuoco 02:28
[02] II. Allegretto with moto and with malinconia grotesca 04:17
[03] III. Allegro giocoso alla Slovakia 03:12
[04] IV. Andante molto sostenuto 06:38
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
String Quartet in D minor, op. 56 “Voces intimae” (1909) 30: 51
[05] I. Andante - Allegro molto moderato 06:33
[06] II. lively 02:34
[07] III. Adagio di molto 10:12
[08] IV. Allegretto (ma pesante) 06:18
[09] V. Allegro 05:14
Leoš Janacek (1854-1928)
String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata” (1923) 17: 56
[10] I. Adagio - Con moto 04:17
[11] II. Con moto 04:34
[12] III. Con moto 03:55
[13] IV. Con moto 05:10
total time: 65:23
Henschel Quartet
Christoph Henschel, violin
Markus Henschel, violin
Monika Henschel, viola
Mathias Beyer-Karlshoj, cello
Press:
04/2013
01.10.2012
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Following the success of a number of recordings made by the Munich-based Henschel Quartet any new release from them is cause for celebration. I made their Mendelssohn's complete string quartets on Arte Nova/BMG my 2005 Recording of the Year. Their world premiere Neos CD of Bruch's String Quintet coupled with Mendelssohn String Quintets was on my 2009 best of year list. Their Manfred Trojahn album was one of my best of year selections for 2011. Since making this recording the line-up has changed with second violin Markus Henschel leaving in 2010 to be replaced by Daniel Bell.
The Henschel are doing sterling work championing Schulhoff's music.Prague-born Schulhoff was one of many victims of the Nazi holocaust killed at the Wülzburg concentration camp, in Bavaria. Virtually forgotten for many years he is beginning to receive the recognition that a major twentieth century composer deserves. I attended a marvelous Henschel performance of Schulhoff's String Quartet No.1 at the Hoylake Chamber Concert Society, West Kirby in the Wirral as part of their 2011 UK tour. That evening they certainly made a compelling case for the score and I am delighted that they have recorded it.
Probably presenting some minor challenges for the general listener the rewards of the Schulhoff are well worth the extra degree of concentration. The Henschel's playing of the second movement Allegretto con moto held the attention with an iron grip. I was struck by the myriad fascinating and often ethereal technical effects together with contrasting melodies ranging from the glorious to the grotesque. Vitally rhythmic, Slovak folk rhythms suffuse the third movement Allegro giocoso alla slovacca which is played with supreme confidence by players who savor every note.
In the mid-1980s the Sibelius family donated a number of the great composer's manuscripts to the Helsinki University Library including some relatively early works for string quartet. In spite of this Sibelius's chamber music still centers around Voces Intimae quartet, Op. 56. Written in 1908/09 and cast in five movements it has a symphonic feel. Sibelius wrote the phrase 'Voces intimae' (Intimate voices) in the manuscript score above the slow third movement. I was especially impressed with the Henschel's playing of the opening movement Andante – Allegro molto moderato which evinces a squally character with passages of uncertain calm. The heart of the work is the intense third movement Adagio di moto with the Henschel squeezing every last drop of emotion from this melancholic writing. Like a lurid dance a mood of restless agitation colors the finale. Played at breakneck speed yet with splendid control the writing takes on a furious and reckless quality.
Janáček's String Quartet No.1 was written very quickly in 1923. He was inspired to write the score by Tolstoy's dark and disturbing 1889 novella The Kreutzer Sonata. In the opening Adagio – con moto which contains abrupt switching from unsettling agitation to a kind of phoney calm the Henschel play with depth and intelligence. The music of the third movement Con moto (Vivo. Andante) is heavily stamped with aggression and torment bordering on the brutal. The Finale just weeps tragic tears yet leaves faint glimpses of hope.
With this meticulously prepared program the Henschel explore the darker often melancholy side of chamber music. I hope that for a future CD these talented performers will turn to more uplifting compositions such as quartets from Haydn and Mozart. The recording is clear if a touch close.
Michael Cookson
Read more: www.musicweb-international.com
22.09.2012
For more than 20 years, the music world has been dealing with the rediscovery of the composer Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942). Science, publishers, performers and – if you will – the public have done a great deal during this time; and yet there can be no question of this process proceeding in seven-league boots. As one of the most imaginative, talented and non-conformist representatives of New Music, Schulhoff certainly deserves far more attention than he has received to date. Against this background, one may be disappointed that two new Schulhoff CDs this year, after the brilliant recording of the Ogelala Suite by the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, focus on the String Quartet No. 1 of all things, which cannot exactly be considered a new discovery in this oeuvre - on the other hand This excellent piece of modern quartet literature undoubtedly deserves increased attention, especially since it is presented in very different contexts: Firstly within Schulhoff's chamber music compositions from the years 1923-25, which the Vogler Quartet recorded for Phil.Harmonie, and now in a bold, epochal one Synopsis that the Henschel Quartet dares at NEOS. Here Schulhoff's impulsive composition is heard alongside the "Voces intimae" by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) and the crime string quartet No. 1 "Die Kreuzersonate" by Leoš Janáček (1854-1928): programmatic contrasts that benefit all three pieces, above all, however, achieve a successful profiling of Schulhoff.
The Henschel Quartet thus proves to be a good advocate of this impetuous, but never uncontrolled or shapeless music, which the ensemble also champions in its concert activities in a sustained and effective manner. Of course, with such an expressive, colorful and biting piece, you have to be careful with the label “reference recording”, and in fact Schulhoff’s string quartet has already been recorded very convincingly with other interpretative approaches – in terms of precision and clarity, however, hardly anyone does the Henschels something, and so they succeed in an exemplary, transparent, handy presentation of this multi-faceted material.
After that, at least if you listen to the CD in the right order, the String Quartet in D minor op. 56 by Jean Sibelius must almost inevitably appear as a drop in tension, and you do more justice to its delicate, dialogic beginning in particular if you look to track no. 4 take a break first. Maybe it's a good idea to read a little Rilke or pour yourself a suitable drink - because this recording of the Sibelius Quartet seems quite different from a distance, as if you exposed it to the collision with Schulhoff unchecked. Only then does the also very transparent reading offered here unfold its lucid and harsh charm, which might otherwise be perceived as slightly undercooled sobriety.
Between tracks 9 and 10, on the other hand, it may continue as attacca as the technique allows - because after Sibelius' "Voces intimae" the extroverted furor in Janáček's String Quartet No. 1 "Die Kreuzersonate" captivates in no time at all, and obviously not only the listeners, but also the performers. There is not much to say about the film-like structure of the composition, its literary model in Leo Tolstoy's novel "The Kreutzer Sonata", and the discography of this work is more than impressive in terms of scope and quality. Nevertheless, this brilliant recording has its full justification, also independent of the concept of the CD discussed here - as a sparkling, inspiring and technically flawless milestone. In the context of Sibelius and Schulhoff, however, more emerges, namely the fascinating picture of an epoch in which these very different temperaments and members of different generations wrote string quartets. Of course, Schulhoff benefits most from this perspective, and neither Janáček nor Sibelius will be wrong if one consults their compositions to get a closer look at that third person who has been cheated of his rightful place by the bloody history of the 20th century – so far at least, on the long road to its rediscovery. The special CD, released in July 2012.
Nils Christian Engel
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