RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Duos for Violin & Cello
Bohuslav MARTINŮ (1890-1959)
Duo for violin and cello no.1 H157 [12:43]
Reinhard SÜSS (b.1961)
Five movements for violin and cello [18:42]
Gideon KLEIN (1919-1945)
Duo for violin and cello [9:32]
Richard DÜNSER (b.1959)
Ode to the rain for violin and cello [11:04]
Erwin SCHULHOFF (1894-1942)
Duo for violin and cello [17:03]
Ernst TOCH (1887-1964)
Divertimento for violin and cello op. 37/1 [6:57]
Eufonia Duo Vienna (Stephan Achenbach (violin); Shamita Achenbach-König (cello))
rec. June 2010, Beethovensaal, Vienna, Austria
VMS MUSICAL TREASURES VMS224 [76.00]
As the liner-notes say the combination of violin and cello is an unusual one.
The Eufonia Duo has commissioned some leading Austrian composers to add to
the small, though technically demanding repertoire and two of those works
are included on this disc. The liner-notes also say that because of the gap
that exists between the high notes of the violin and the low notes of the
cello the cello is often called upon to “fill this space”. Unfortunately I’m
not sufficiently musically competent to either understand or comment on that
statement but the music on this disc doesn’t appear to involve any compensatory
elements as far as my ear and emotional response is concerned. Each instrument
seems to me to be perfectly balanced and equally weighted in carrying the
music forward. If I’m correct then it is a tribute to the composers who achieved
a seemingly difficult and challenging task.
The first work on the disc - Martinů’s Duo - is a beautiful piece. It
was written in a few days, to be performed in Paris in March 1927 by members
of the Novak quartet who were there to perform his 2nd String Quartet
which they had premiered in Prague two years previously. It has all the hallmarks
of mature Martinů with endless invention. There’s no sign that the unusual
combination presented any musical problems to him - what did? The first of
the two movements opens with a short violin introduction soon followed by
the cello in sharing the tune. The two instruments spiral up and down the
scale exploring then improvising on the theme before settling down around
2 ½ minutes in to reestablish a calm atmosphere in which to end the movement.
Martinů had as his aim to ‘render to some extent his affirmation of
a quiet and happy life’ and this work certainly exemplifies that aim.
The second movement opens with a merry folk-inspired tune which is given the
unique Martinů treatment. Any lover of his music will immediately recognize
his particular musical voice; the music is then treated to jazzy syncopated
rhythms in which his joie de vivre is clearly evident. About 4 minutes
in the cello is left on its own to plough a wonderfully lyrical path before
the violin returns to relieve its partner and share in the headlong rush to
the satisfying conclusion. In doing so we are returned to the opening theme
of the movement.
Reinhard Süss is one of the contemporary Austrian composers the Eufonia Duo
apporached. However, as a presenter on UK’s Radio 3 recently said, before
you find something else to do, there is no need to be afraid as this composer
is musically very ‘user friendly’. The Five Movements are absolutely gorgeous
and will certainly have me seeking out more Süss. The opening movement begins
with an achingly poignant tune during which the violin soars to the upper
registers while the cello stays rooted well below. Then a section of fast
themes is alternated by calm sections. The second movement is marked by a
memorable songlike theme whilst the third is one of great calm followed by
an extremely lively scherzo which is restless in its intensity. This is punctuated
by much plucking of strings before the final movement returns to a structure
that resembles the opening movement. The writing finely balanced and makes
for a very pleasing whole.
Gideon Klein is one of the tragic losses music has suffered at the hands of
madmen. He was murdered in an Auschwitz sub-camp in 1945 at the age of barely
26. His promise is evident in his every work and he was prolific for such
a young man. Works of his are still being discovered; the Duo was found along
with a number of other works as late as 1990! His music is more ‘contemporary’
in style than the previous work on the disc, which was by a composer born
16 years after Klein was killed. Nevertheless Klein’s music is accessible
and rewards study - showing what a promising composer he was. The opening
movement of the two is extremely lyrical full of colour and beauty. This is
followed by the all too brief unfinished Lento that is cut off mid-phrase
in a poignant echo of Klein’s tragically short and unfulfilled life.
Richard Dünser is the other ‘contemporary’ Austrian composer who has dedicated
works for this Duo. His Ode to the rain is inspired by a poem by Pablo
Neruda and dates only from 2009. The section which is the specific inspiration
reads: … the night burst.… and then the rain of my childhood returned …
sombre violin … I walked with torn shoes.… there you take off the mask of
your beauty … in the night, with my eyes closed, I have been waiting.…that
you will sing solely for my ear.…O sad rain sing, sing.…sing on the roofs
and the leaves, sing in the icy wind, sing in my heart…. The music is
really lovely - full of gorgeous harmonies. It’s a perfect musical picture
of the poetry that inspired it; Neruda would have been very pleased indeed.
Erwin Schulhoff sadly shared the same fate as Gideon Klein but even earlier
in the war, in 1942, dying of tuberculosis in Wülzburg Castle Internment Camp.
He was already a fully established and hugely successful composer at the time
of his arrest. His Duo shows him at the height of his musical powers. The
work is superb and thrilling and puts the players through their paces. Listen
to the second movement, the Zingaresca, which is fast, furious and
huge fun, full of folk-like rhythms. It makes you smile. The Andantino
brings things back to a state of calm and contains some truly lush themes
of great beauty. The leitmotifs in the last movement mirror those in the opening
and are used to connect the two making a satisfying circular musical tour.
Schulhoff’s final diary entry for March 1941 reads ‘A true artist must
never be afraid of the auto-da-fe. The creative impulse must be rooted in
an innermost conviction and the idea must be so powerful to be fully convincing.
The outward success is not what immediately stimulates the development of
the creative mind; this is just ‘some added spice’ which one should by all
means try to forgo. It is the struggle which eventually gives importance to
the creative artist, partly the fight against his own human weakness and partly
also the fight against the rotten behavior of humanity’. With opinions
such as that it is hardly surprising that the Nazis had him arrested on the
very day they launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union where,
having applied for citizenship, he was preparing to emigrate.
The final work on this fascinating and very listenable disc is the Divertimento
op. 37/1 by Ernst Toch who was born in Austria and was living in Berlin in
1933. He could see that as a Jew he had to leave. He emigrated to the USA
where he spent the rest of his life, during which time he picked a couple
of Academy Award nominations for film music he’d written for Hollywood. The
work here is again a hugely successful piece. It’s inventive, exciting, tonally
explorative and supremely musical. Once again the fact that this work is ‘contemporary’
doesn’t mean it isn’t tuneful, just as Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht
cannot be said to be anything but. That said, the two instruments are, as
always in the works on this disc, continually technically challenged and the
two players come through with flying colours. It is a lovely work with which
to complete the disc. They all are and it must have been difficult to choose
the order to place them.
The Eufonia Duo comprises two superb instrumentalists. There can be little
music that tests a player’s abilities more than the music on this disc. One
could be forgiven for thinking that, maybe, music for such a combination would
be unlikely to hold one’s attention for over an hour. They’d be wrong and,
for me at least, I found the whole experience extremely rewarding – 76 minutes
of aurally sublime and fascinating music.
Steve Arloff
76 minutes of aurally sublime and fascinating music.