It has been a long wait for those who bought the
Molinari Quartet's recording of Murray Schafer's first seven string
quartets
thirteen years ago. At the time of that release, Schafer
was still working on his Eighth and it was only last year that he completed
the Twelfth, finally giving the Molinaris and ATMA just about enough
material for a second double-disc album.
The first bars of the First Quartet are enough for any listener to recognise
that Schafer's music is not full of hummable tunes, whilst others may
consider the police sirens in the Second an appropriate response to
its 'offence' of atonality. On the first volume, the Seventh Quartet
includes a part for obbligato soprano with echo effects, the Fourth
an ethereal wordless soprano/violin 'overdub', the Third rhythmic vocalisations
from the performers in the middle movement, and the Fifth requires the
additional playing of crotales towards the end. For the latest batch
Schafer in some respects steps up the experimentalism, with a pre-recorded
Aeolian harp in the final movement of the Eleventh, pre-recorded children's
voices in the Ninth and a narrator (Schafer himself) in the Tenth.
Yet whilst undoubtedly keen to try new things, even approaching eighty,
Schafer does not shy from tonality or indeed lyricism, as many passages
in the Fifth, dedicated to the wife of the Canadian businessman who
commissioned the work, testify. In fact, encountering Schafer through
the opening of the Ninth, with a child's voice singing wordlessly over
an elegiac quartet accompaniment, may lead the listener momentarily
to the conclusion that Schafer writes Hans Zimmer-style for the US film
industry. What is in any case clear from these quartets dating right
back to 1970 is that Schafer never set out to shock in a crash-bang-wallop,
enfant terrible kind of way. For sure, there are drones and screeches
and numerous non-quartet sound effects spanning the decades, but there
is always a sense of narrative and extended periods spent in tonal soundscapes
that would be recognised by the likes of Shostakovich.
Moreover, from the Chinese-coloured Eighth, the later quartets indicate
a more audience-friendly composer. The chilly but melodic Tenth in particular
is an ideal place to start listening to Schafer - even if the composer's
reading of his own short poem is slightly stagy. In fact, anyone comfortable
with the quartets of Schnittke - for which the Molinari Quartet's own
recent recording for ATMA comes highly
commended
- should find even the more uncompromising material in Schafer's earlier
works entirely accessible and, with appropriate commitment, enjoyable
indeed.
True to form, the Molinari Quartet have helped greatly in the dissemination,
such as it is, of these quartets since their formation in 1997. As Schafer
explains in the booklet that accompanies the first volume: "In our culture
it is rare for a performing group to adopt a composer, as the Molinari
Quartet did when Olga Ranzenhofer called me on the telephone to say:
'We'd like to perform all your string quartets and we'd like you to
write a new one for us.'" In her own preface Ranzenhofer writes that
these works are "destined to remain in the string quartet repertoire
for years to come", a reflection of the group's appreciation of the
"sensitive and refined writing; pure, beautiful sonorities; powerful
harmonies; pungently expressive dissonances; impetuous, energetic rhythms;
fascinating transitions between episodes" that characterise Schafer's
music. Unfortunately, his quartets have never been in the repertory
of any but a few enterprising ensembles - among which the Molinaris
are exemplary - that are prepared or in a financial position to try
to extend the standard repertoire. How many quartets will even hear
these performances, let alone be inspired to learn and programme any
Schafer?
Only Ranzenhofer remains of the first-album line-up, incidentally: Frédéric
Bednarz, Frédéric Lambert and Pierre-Alain Bouvrette have
replaced Johannes Jansonius, David Quinn and Sylvie Lambert, the latter
already replaced by Julie Trudeau for the recording of the Eighth. Nevertheless,
the sound remains recognisable as that of the Molinari Quartet: strong,
considered, expressive, technically superb.
ATMA's booklet notes in both cases are a paragon of clarity and detail,
even providing excerpts from each of the scores in the earlier volume.
This recording of the Eighth Quartet was previously released on ACD22201,
which explains why it was recorded ten years before the rest of the
album.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
