Krzysztof PENDERECKI (b. 1933)
Selected Chamber Works
String Trio
Prelude for Clarinet Solo
Per Slava for Cello Solo
Sonata for Violin and Piano
Cadenza for Viola Solo
Quartet for Clarinet and String Trio
Deutsches Streichtrio,
Eduard Brunner, Patrick O'Byrne
CPO 999 730-2
[48.16]
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Try this disc when you're driving in your car. You will get to work energized,
perhaps even early. The Deutsches Streichtrio plays the String Trio with
taut energy laced with threat and dashed with melancholy. They remind me
of the way the Emerson String Quartet plays Bartók. When they tire
of hurling chromatic bolts of demi-melody, they lead you through a cavern
of vague unease. I listened transfixed. So this is why Penderecki dedicated
this piece to them. They know its inner secrets, unlike the Tale Quartet
(BIS CD-652), who seem to be on less sure ground, particularly with the staccato
opening chords. While the Deutsches Streichtrio speak them boldly, the Tale
do so timidly, as if this music requires understatement. Similarly, clarinettist
Eduard Brunner's Prelude for Clarinet solo begins less tenuously than Martin
Fröst's, quickly getting to the point by stating its poetry in 2:34
rather than 3:21. Fröst's is still a compelling rendition, but Brunner
plays closer to the sinews and bones. His legato of pain at the climax passes
by quickly, like when a bullet grazes the skull, while Fröst dwells
a moment too long. Similarly the Deutsches Streichtrio performs the Quartet
for Clarinet and String Trio with keening and dark insinuation. While less
spectacular, the Tale does a decent job; however their sound seems distantly
miked, so the pp passages lose resonance. While these are the only
three works these collections have in common, I would recommend the CPO disc
if you want one volume of Penderecki's intense chamber music. Violinist Hans
Kalafusz and pianist Patrick O'Byrne play his Sonata for Violin and Piano
so well you may see the ghosts of Bartók and Prokofiev. Like the Bartok
second Violin Sonata, this piece is a charmingly dissonant work with off-kilter
folk melodies.
Peter Bates
