RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Leoš JANÁČEK (1854-1938)
String Quartet No.1 (Kreutzer Sonata) (1923) [18:05]
String Quartet No.2 (Listy duverne) (Intimate Letters) (1928)
[24:27]
String Quartet No.2 (version with viola d’amore by Gunter Teuffel) [24:40]
Mandelring Quartet (Sebastian Schmidt (violin I); Nanette Schmidt (violin
II); Roland Glassl (viola); Bernhard Schmidt (cello)); Gunter Teuffel (viola
d’amore))
rec. 16-19 December 2009, Klingenmünster
Hybrid SACD - playable on SACD and standard CD players.
AUDITE 92.545 [67:14]
Leoš Janáček is a unique phenomenon in the history of classical
music. He was born in humble surroundings in 1854 in the small Moravian town
of Hukvaldy. After his studies he became the head of his own music school
in the town of Brno. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic
research. His early musical output was unremarkable and influenced by contemporaries
such as Antonín Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate
his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis.
This was first evident in the opera Jenufa,which was premiered
in 1904 in Brno. In the year 1916, at age 62, Jenufa was performed
to great acclaim in Prague. When Jenufa was staged in the opera-houses
of Vienna (1918) and Berlin (1924), he finally achieved international recognition.
In the eight years before his death at age 74, he astonished the musical world
by completing five more operas.
In the summer of 1917, while on holiday at his beloved spa Lucacovice, he
met a beautiful woman half his age, with whom he fell madly in love. A love-affair
never materialized, but she was to remain the object of his affection for
the rest of his days. While staying faithful to her husband and children,
Kamila Stösslova maintained an extensive correspondence with the aging
composer. Some six hundred letters that Janáček wrote to her have
been preserved and published, and a large number of his works are dedicated
to her. The inspiration Janáček found in his love for Kamila not
only prompted him to compose five operas, but also made him turn to the more
intimate medium of chamber music. In his final years he wrote a string quartet,
violin sonata, wind quintet, the Concertino for piano, the Capriccio for left
hand piano, and his last completed instrumental composition, the second string
quartet of 1928.
Both string quartets are dedicated to Kamila Stösslova, and both have
nicknames. The first is called ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ after the Tolstoy
novel, which refers to Beethoven’s Violin sonata of the same name. Janáček
called his second quartet ‘Intimate Letters’, and in a letter
to Kamila we read: ‘today, it’s Sunday, I’m especially sad.
I’ve begun work on a quartet; I’ll give it the name Love Letters’.
Each movement evokes a certain point in their relationship, and when the quartet
was near its premiere he wrote that ‘you stand behind every note, you,
living, forceful, loving. The fragrance of your body, the glow of your kisses
- no, really of mine. Those notes of mine kiss all of you. They call for you
passionately’.
To symbolize that love, Janáček chose an instrument that embodies
the feminine form both in sound and appearance: the viola d’amore. The
viola d’amore is part of the old viol family; it has seven strings plus
five resonating strings. The tuning is based on a major triad, not on fifths
like the violin. It was very popular in the baroque era, and Antonio Vivaldi
wrote several concertos for the instrument. When the viol family was replaced
by the modern violin, viola and cello, the viola d’amore lay dormant
for several centuries. In the twentieth century, with its renewed interest
in old music and instruments, it came to life again. Paul Hindemith, among
others, was responsible for resurrecting its use. Janáček fell
in love with its sound and used it in his opera Katya Kabanova, another
work that was dedicated to Kamila. When he started his second quartet, he
decided that he would substitute the viola with a viola d’amore. The
viola d’amore has one severe drawback: the sound that it produces is
very delicate and soft, and there is no way that it can compete with the much
more forceful violin and cello - even when played on gut strings. Janáček
abandoned the idea and reverted to the normal viola. Unfortunately an original
score has not been preserved.
The Mandelring Quartet asked viola d’amore player Gunter Teuffel to
make a reconstruction of Janáček’s original ideas. Teuffel
worked out a performance version in which the viola d’amore is reinstated.
In a very thorough and elaborate text in the booklet, he explains his decisions.
Better yet, the label Audite has provided us with a video that has been published
on youtube. In this clip Teuffel explains the way the instrument is built
and played, and together with the other members of the quartet he plays important
excerpts from the score. He tells us (in German) that the other players are
holding back, but to tell the truth, what we hear is a full-blown string quartet.
One must assume that the recording technician helped a little in redressing
the balance.
Audite presents two recordings of the second quartet, first the published
version, and next the reconstruction. An ear-catching difference occurs in
the very opening, where the full chords in first and second violin are delivered
pizzicato, not arco. This creates space for the fragile sound of the viola
d’amore to blossom. To detect most of the other changes one really needs
a score - available free of charge in the Petrucci library on the internet.
In the video we notice that on the last page of the score it is not the first
violin, but the viola d’amore that delivers the high embellished notes
that float over the whipping chords of the other instruments.
The Mandelring Quartet consists of three siblings: Sebastian Schmidt leads,
his sister Nanette plays second violin, and brother Bernhard cello. Roland
Glassl is the viola player. They record exclusively for the label Audite and
have won praise for their award-winning issue of the complete string quartets
of Dmitri Shostakovich. Musicianship is impeccable and intonation is spot-on.
The rough-and-ready attack that mars so many recordings of these very orchestrally
conceived scores is fortunately missing. The large helping of general pauses
in these pages can turn tricky, but here they are realized to perfection.
The recording is exemplary. The position of each player is defined very precisely,
which is something that really matters in the case of the reconstructed Second
Quartet. The viola d’amore is placed slightly to the right of centre,
and can be followed very easily. This is a must-have for Janáček-fans
and chamber music aficionados alike.
Siebe Riedstra
A must-have for Janáček-fans and chamber music aficionados alike.
Also posted on Opusklassiek.nl