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Alban BERG (1885-1935)
String Quartet, Op. 3 (1910) [21:45]
Lyric Suite (1925/26) [28:31] Hugo WOLF (1860-1903)
Italian Serenade (1887) [6:56]
New Zealand String Quartet (Helene
Pohl, Douglas Beilman, violins; Gilliam Snsell,
viola; Rolf Grelsten, cello)
rec. Adam Concert Room, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 22-24
November 2004. DDD NAXOS 8.557374 [57:28]
The
New Zealand String Quartet, engaged in a complete cycle of
the Mendelssohn string quartets for Naxos, presents intense
readings of Berg’s two string quartets (the Lyric
Suite is sometimes referred to as String Quartet No.
2).
The bi-movement
Op. 3 work reveals many of the composer’s hallmarks - wedge-shaped
lines, superbly crafted motivic workings that betray Schoenberg’s
watchful eye - over its twenty-minute span. The Quartet is
captured in the superb acoustics of the Victoria University
of Wellington where they have been Quartet in Residence since
1991. The playing has a burnished tone and there is a secure
grasp of the structural dynamics. They impart a rawness to
parts of the second movement that takes the surface closer
to Schoenberg while capturing a sense of the massive. The references
to Mahler’s Second Symphony must surely refer to this sense
of a vast time-scale. The ghostly section just after eight
minutes into the finale is particularly finely realized; its
almost spectral quality just right. The recording’s clarity
- at the hands of producer Wayne Laird - is a real bonus at
times like this. Of course they go head-to-head with groups
like the Kronos (Nonesuch), the supreme Arditti (on Naïve,
with the same coupling but shorn of the Wolf) and the LaSalle
(DG, but apparently only currently available as part of a boxed
set). That they hold their own is testimony to their interpretative
stature and to their technical prowess.
The Lyric Suite is
clearly the more mature work of the two, hyper-assured and
rich in the extra-musical reference so beloved of this composer.
The New Zealand Quartet plays this as chamber music par
excellence. The lines intertwine sinuously. At times the
spirit of the dance seems to want to burst forth. This is especially
so in the Andante amoroso. At times there is an almost desperate
edge to the appassionato feel of the fourth movement Adagio.
This is a heady interpretation of heady music. Contrasts are
marked - try the penultimate movement, the Presto delirando
- while the final Largo desolato is the epitome of heartfelt
expressionist angst.
Finally, the seven-minute
Wolf piece is a ray of sunshine whose harmonic language and
general world is not so far removed from the Berg as to seem
out of place. In some ways it is the ideal way to close the
disc if one listens straight through; presumably fifty minutes
was deemed too short a playing time. All members of the quartet
have a way of phrasing that can imply a sly raised eyebrow
or even a wink.
Quite why these
recordings sat in the Naxos vaults for nearly three years is
beyond me. I know the release schedule from that company is,
to say the least, frantic, but these are urgent interpretations
that fully deserve to be before the paying public.
Colin Clarke
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