SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Schulhoff, Bruch and Schubert: Henschel Quartet (Christoph Henschel (violin), Markus Henschel (violin), Monika Henschel-Schwind (viola), Mathias Beyer-Larlshøj (cello) with Kazuki Sawa (viola), Wigmore Hall, London, 23.7.2008 (BBr)


Erwin Schulhoff: String Quartet No.1 (1924)
Max Bruch: String Quintet in Eb (world première) (1918)
Franz Schubert: String Quartet in G, D887 (1826)


Premières are always special occasions. Whether it be the first performance of a new work by a well loved composer, which one welcomes like an old friend telling a new story, or a new composer with, hopefully, something to say, there is always an air of expectancy in the concert hall. Tonight’s première was somewhat different, Bruch’s Quintet is already 90 years old, and the reason for the delay in performance is unusual. At the end of his life Bruch wrote three chamber works (two Quintets and an Octet). The manuscripts of one of the Quintets and the Octet were destroyed during the war and only exist because the composer’s daughter-in-law made hand written copies. The manuscript of this Quintet went into private hands and it only became available to the public when it appeared for auction two years ago.

The question has to be – was it worth waiting for? The answer is a most definite yes. In four compact movements, playing for about 30 minutes, it’s a playful, delightfully scored piece, tightly constructed in two sections, each in two movements. The slowish first movement was over almost before it began, lovely sustained music, and burst into a breathless allegro. The slow third movement acted as an introduction to the finale, which, itself, started with a slow introduction, and the work came to a joyous conclusion without any angst or troubles. It’s a fine addition to the repertoire and, although the language is of seventy years earlier, and Bruch doesn’t tell us anything new, it’s pleasant and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So did the Henschel’s and Sawa. They played it with authority – never an easy thing to do with a new work – and treated it as the divertissement it so obviously is. Let’s hope it’s not going to be another 90 years before we’re allowed to hear it again!

The concert started with Erwin Schulhoff’s 1^st Quartet – but his fourth work in the genre – a composition which plays fast and loose with form and content. Schulhoff is one of those composers who disappeared because of the war – he died in Wülzberg, Bavaria, of Tuberculosis in 1942. Many of his works were fuelled by jazz – the Hot Sonata for saxophone, Esquisses de Jazz, for piano and the Suite for chamber orchestra [Suite in the new style], op.37; the unusual (for want of a better word) Sonata Erotica, for moaning solo soprano, is another matter entirely – and these are the pieces for which he was best known for many years. Today there are recordings of most of his music and he regularly receives performances, which is more than he did during his lifetime. The 1^st Quartet doesn’t have anything to do with jazz but it does have a lot to do with the expressionist movement. Beginning furiously it contains a lovely slow movement, a folk dance-like scherzo and a slow finale which, after all the excitement and the various twists and turns of the music, ends in magical peace, the music fading away to nothingness, which took the audience by surprise. It’s a very strong piece and it got a performance worthy of it. The Henschels weren’t afraid to let themselves go when the music demanded it, and they tore into the music with a gusto. The final diminuendo was heart breaking in its intensity.

After the interval, late Schubert and another work of heavenly length. This is a disturbing work, full of strange tremolandos, quickly repeated notes, odd turns of harmony, and a high degree of violent gestures. The first movement is high drama, even in the lyrical passages there are disruptive elements and the Quartet pointed all the oddities Schubert throws at us, making it a most troubling listen. The slow movement, with its glorious writing for the cello, is more of the same but within a slower, more refined, atmosphere. Two huge climaxes disrupt the flow of the music, and the Quartet rose to the challenge and made them appear to be of titanic proportions. The other two movements are easier but still contain unsettling elements. The trio of the scherzo, for instance, is quite spooky and the finale, despite having an outwardly bucolic main theme contains such turns of harmony as to keep us wondering where the music is going. It’s a difficult work to bring off successfully because of the unusual nature of the music but the Henschel Quartet understood how to make the music work and they gave a towering performance, full of energy, mystery and beauty in the slow movement.

Bob Briggs


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