There seems to be a certain logic in reviewing this pair of discs
together. Both have been in the Nimbus catalogue for well over
a decade but this is my first pleasurable encounter with them.
What an extraordinary city for the arts Vienna was from the turn
of the 20
th century right up to the Anschluss of 1938.
These four pieces by three different composers of widely differing
musical outlook have common links in making huge demands on their
performers, having a perpetually shifting tonality and being ‘big’
works.
The German company CPO have done much in the last decade to rehabilitate
the compositional reputation of Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek. Before
that, his name was known for a single light-hearted overture to
his opera
Donna Diana. Even that is no longer heard in
concert nearly as much as it once was. His opera
Ritter Blaubart
from 1917 is utterly compelling and for anyone with a penchant
for Richard Strauss they should seek out his big orchestral works
Schlemihl and
Der Sieger. But Nimbus got in there
before these discs with the world premiere recording of his first
string quartet. Interestingly, given that it was written later
than any of the orchestral works mentioned above, it feels much
more ‘traditional’. In fact all four quartets on these two discs,
no how matter how hard they batter at the gates of tonality, are
quite content to stick to the classical four movement format with
the slow movement second and scherzo third. Written in C sharp
minor, Reznicek clearly was not overly concerned for any issues
that would confront his faithful players! The Franz Schubert Quartett
Wien is steeped in the tradition of this music and have the technical
resource to play the music with apparent ease. My only feeling
here - and more so in the Korngold quartet with which it is coupled
- is that they don’t allow the music to smile as much as it needs.
They favour an intense and firmly projected style that underlines
the expressionist heritage of the works. This is a completely
legitimate approach but one that can make for a rather tiring
listening experience. Curiously, given Nimbus’s preference for
a set-back natural acoustic when recording larger ensembles both
of these quartet discs favour a closely-miked arrangement with
little ambience around the instruments. As far as I am aware the
performance of the Reznicek still has the catalogue to itself
and for admirers of the composer it is therefore a compulsory
purchase. I would have to say that I do like his music a lot but
would not wish to start an acquaintance via this work. The coupling
is Korngold’s first quartet as well and here the recorded competition
is much stiffer. Written just a year or so later than the previous
work Korngold, by the early 1920s, was in the middle of his happiest
and most successful phase of his life. One has the sense that
nothing was beyond the grasp of this genuinely prodigious composer.
It lies between his greatest operatic success
Die tote Stadt
of 1920 and the majestically sprawling
Das Wunder der Heliane
of 1927. Was there ever a tonal composer who was able to slide
through keys with the Houdini-like trickery of Korngold? Key to
that musical sleight-of-hand I think is the ease with which the
players are able to convey the music. Not that the Franz Schubert
Quartet are challenged by the music but their heavier style weighs
the music down far more than this work’s premiere recording from
the Chilingirian Quartet. Their performance on RCA coupled with
the same composer’s 3
rd quartet is now the best part
of 25 years old but it still sounds very well and to my ear captures
the spirit of the ‘leaping-heart’ central to Korngold’s entire
oeuvre and this work in particular. There is also the version
by the Flesch Quartet – now on Brilliant Classics featuring all
3 quartets and the string sextet – which is well worth considering
on completist, performance and cost grounds; it also benefits
from a lighter touch in the 1
st Quartet. It should
be said though that the physical, expressionist approach does
make for one fascinating thought. For too long musicologists would
have you think that the emergence of the Schoenberg-inspired 2
nd
Viennese School with their atonal serial creed placed them at
total odds with the compositional philosophy which preceded them
and that the group of composers represented by these discs continued
to pursue. That is far from the whole story - there is far less
musical distance between the likes of Berg and Korngold than one
might initially imagine. Both had the resources to explore the
common ground between extended tonality and what one might term
lyrical atonality. It is performances such as those here that
help the ear bridge that gap and let the listener realize that
such categorisations are the remit of critics not composers.
Sitting in the cellos of the Vienna Philharmonic from circa 1900
to the outbreak of the first World War was a pretty good way to
get a thorough grounding in the major musical developments in
Western Classical Music. Franz Schmidt is often labeled as a conservative
even in the company of Korngold and Zemlinsky let alone those
of the 2
nd Viennese School. The two quartets recorded
here are from a few years following those on the previous disc
and at first listening they do seem to be more ‘backward-looking’
than either. But the more one listens the more one realizes this
is a superficial judgement based on the more lyrical and benevolent
nature of the music. Certainly this recording seems to have caught
the Franz Schubert Quartet in a sunnier mood. Made a year before
the above coupling and with a different cellist the whole mood
- although recorded in a very similar manner - seems far more
relaxed and this is to the benefit of the music. It has been said
about these two big quartets – both run just shy of forty minutes
– that they take on the mantle of the Bruckner Quintet. The first
movement of the
String Quartet in A major is marked
Anmutig
bewegt – graceful but with movement - and that is exactly
how it is played here. You can’t help surmising that Schmidt –
a professional string player of the first rank - was intuitively
kinder to his musicians than the other two composers. I have not
had access to a score but the ear alone tells you that although
these works are not devoid of complex passages they do not have
the downright awkwardnesses that certainly Korngold in his youthful
enthusiasm threw in. The spirit of Schubert hangs over these works
too. If you know Schmidt from his confessional and superb
Symphony
No.4 do not expect that kind of cathartic emotional release
here. For sure this is a work with dark recesses but it has song
in its heart. It is not a work totally free of curiosities; after
two extended movements – the second movement
Adagio is
a gem - there is a charming scherzo
Sehr lebhaft (very
lively – a marking favoured by Schumann not totally coincidentally
I would propose) and then a theme and variations finale -
Ruhig
fließend – quiet but flowing which amiably disappears into
the musical distance. Every time I have listened to it so far
I have been caught out by the gentle dissolve into silence. The
String Quartet in G major of four years later is altogether
more sinuous and unsettled. The first movement is more ill at
ease than its
molto tranquillo marking would infer. Again
the Franz Schubert Quartet has the complete measure of this with
none of the forcing of tone that featured on the other disc. One
can only assume that this is a stylistic choice. The slow movement
again forms the questing heart of the work although I don’t think
it would be too fanciful to hear more of the darkness that was
to cloud Schmidt’s later years beginning to gather here. The finale
again poses as many questions as it answers being deliberately
slighter than the music that has come before with the final gestures
seeming curt and almost incomplete. These are a tantalising pair
of works and even with the superficial knowledge of them that
I have gained so far it is clear that they are important pieces
of music which will repay extended closer study.
Regarding the Nimbus presentation; it is its usual high quality
self – the essay accompanying the Korngold/Reznicek disc being
particularly interesting. Both contain evocative photographs of
composers and protagonists but oddly the Schmidt booklet contains
not a single word of analysis of the works in question. Part of
the reason I wanted to combine the two reviews is for me the mystery
of the difference in performing style. As recorded this same quartet
sounds superb on the Schmidt and less convincing on the companion
disc. Not that that should deter listeners from hearing it but
certainly if the Korngold is the lure I would go elsewhere first.
These are the last pair of discs I am reviewing of a group I have
recently received from the Nimbus back catalogue. One common factor
to them all has been the quality of the repertoire, performances,
engineering and presentation. I’m just sorry it has taken me the
best part of a decade and a half to hear most of them!
Nick Barnard
Franz Schubert Quartett, Wien 
