MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Paul JUON (1872-1940)
Piano Quartet Op. 50 (1912) [32.36]
Piano Quartet Op. 37 (1907) [29.13]
Oliver Triendl (piano); Daniel Gaede (violin); Hariolf Schlichtig (viola); Peter Bruns (cello)
rec. Siemensvilla Berlin-Lankwitz, 14-16 December 2006
CPO 7772782 [62.09]
Experience Classicsonline


I confess that until this CD plopped onto my doormat recently I had not heard of Paul Juon. I feel somewhat embarrassed by this because what I have heard here is most impressive.

So what kind of style can be expected? When I first saw the impressionist painting on the front of the booklet I thought that Juon - being unfamiliar with this surname - must hale from a southern European land. But the painter gave me a big clue as to what I might expect. It is certainly a French-type café painting and dated 1908 but it is by Nikolaj Klodt (1865-1918). Klodt was a Russian artist and so indeed Paul Juon, who pictured a couple of times in the booklet, is Russian-born; Moscow in fact. He was a pupil of Taneyev and Arensky. He lived much of his life in Berlin and indeed in Azerbaijan. Perhaps this wanderlust is the reason why he is now not at all well known. Yet there is a sort of Gallic impressionism in this music or more accurately an exoticism. This perhaps links him with another master: Rimsky-Korsakov. There is, I have learned, a Paul Juon society and their website is worth looking at. It will point you in the direction of other recorded chamber works. There is also a sense in this music of Russian folk melody as in the third movement of Op. 50. All in all, an interesting mix and a promising beginning. 

The booklet notes, translated by Suan Marie Praeder somewhat surprisingly state that the greatest twentieth century composers in this media - indeed the two men who saved the Piano Quartet as a form - were Max Reger and Paul Juon. I quote: “the piano quartet medium which began with Mozart’s two compositions found its last two important composers … in Paul Juon and Max Reger”. 

Incidentally the booklet notes although quite useful are sometimes rather overly poetic and in places are really quite comic. As an example I offer “Here we witness (in the Op. 50) an intimate conversation, pervaded by hidden allusions and indecipherable references; but its wistfulness, which is not at all that of a whiny lament, is so eloquent that we really never miss the key to its secret cabinets of meaning”. Beautiful. 

So what of these two works? I always think it curious that some record companies do not present the pieces in chronological order. It’s a small point and one can track a CD any old way, nevertheless I will discuss the works in their recorded order. 

Both pieces are long and one might say, serious. The later work comes first. It is in four movements with the brief Scherzo placed second. The first movement opens with several quite curiously contrasted ideas which the composer ‘plays with’ throughout. There is a definite, quite romantic, second subject, but the sonata form is not treated overly strictly. Emotionally it makes a strong impact and with the fleeting scherzo following, ones attention is held. The slow movement has its own distinctiveness of melody and the finale, although possibly slightly less interesting than the rest, rounds the works off in a thoughtful manner. It is dedicated to the composer’s wife Ekaterina who suffered her final illness whilst the work was on the composer’s desk. Juon was nursing her during this time. The mood is dark and impassioned not so much tearful - more elegiac and melancholic but a fine testimony to their, up until then, happy lives together. 

It is instantly apparent that the performances are extremely committed, broad in tone and beautifully recorded and balanced. The players must have come to this music from a standing start but quite obviously believe in it. Op. 50 demonstrates this but Op. 37 proves it. This is a three movement work, the first two being the length of the third which is simply marked sostenuto. The subtitle ‘Rhapsodie’ explains the form, perhaps in England ‘Fantasia’ would have been used. Yet despite the potential it certainly avoids rambling and ideas are brought back and developed. It is a carefree piece with the almost childlike quality of the second tune in the finale a good example as is the short middle movement. It is the antithesis of Op. 50, and the two works complement each other. Both are fully romantic, but with penetrating harmonies and originality. The opening idea of Op. 37 begins on cello and is taken up by the violin and viola. It is then passionately pushed out of the way by the piano – an especially arresting moment. 

As you can tell I have enjoyed and much admired this CD. I daresay it will remain little known and probably rather specialist in its appeal, yet that should not be so. The music is accessible and all music-lovers can take it to heart. The performances, as I have indicated, are extremely fine and I can only urge you to search it out and find out more about this sadly little known figure in early 20th Century mid-European music. 

Gary Higginson 

 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.