R Murray SCHAFER (b.1933)
String Quartet no.1 (1970) [16:26]
String Quartet no.2, 'Waves' (1970) [17:22]
String Quartet no.4 (1988-89) [18:34]
String Quartet no.5, 'Rosalind' (1989) [17:16]
String Quartet no.3 (1981) [28:24]
String Quartet no.6, 'Parting Wild Horse's Mane' (1993) [18:02]
String Quartet no.7 (1998) [27:34]
Quatuor Molinari (Olga Ranzenhofer (violin I), Johannes Jansonius (violin
II), David Quinn (viola),
Sylvie Lambert (cello)); Marie-Danielle Parent (soprano) (nos. 4 and 7)
rec. Eglise Saint-Augustin, Mirabel, Quebec, 14-17 December 1999 and 15-17
January 2000.
ATMA CLASSIQUE ACD22188 [69:38 + 56:51]
String Quartet no.9 (2005) [23:31]
String Quartet no.10, 'Winter Birds' (2005) [17:27]
String Quartet no.11 (2006) [24:19]
String Quartet no.12 (2012) [16:52]
*String Quartet no.8 (2000/20001) [22:24]
Quatuor Molinari (Olga Ranzenhofer (violin I), Frédéric Bednarz
(violin II), Frédéric Lambert (viola), Pierre-Alain Bouvrette
(cello)); *Johannes Jansonius (violin II), David Quinn (viola), Julie Trudeau
(cello)
R Murray Shafer (narrator) (no.10)
rec. Eglise Saint-Augustin, Mirabel, Quebec, June 2012 and January 2013 (nos.
9-12); June 2002 (no.8). DDD
ATMA CLASSIQUE ACD22672 [65:17 + 39:16]
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
Even Schafer’s more uncompromising material is entirely accessible and,
with appropriate commitment, enjoyable.
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