Once again, the ECM label brings us a programme which defies the
usual comparison/ranking kind of review through the sheer range of the music
included. This is however more than just an old-adjacent-to-new release.
This two disc set comes from two recording sessions, the earlier of these
being the last to include cellist and founding member Françoise
Groben (1965-2011). “Her energy and creativity were crucial to our
development and early successes, such as the Schumann CD (ECM 1793). This
new production is dedicated to her memory.”
The Zehetmair Quartet has received consistent acclaim for their
recordings, including one with works by Bartók and Hindemith (see
review). Their debut ECM record, ECM 1727, included
Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s
First String Quartet, and his works
have long been part of the ensemble’s
concert programmes.
Beethoven’s late quartets are considered sublime but
‘difficult’, and there are certainly plenty of technical
demands, through which the Zehetmair Quartet breeze with no apparent
difficulty. They seem to take the opening
Allegretto as having its
basis in Schubert, resulting in a lightness of touch which delivers a feel
for accessible emotion which takes off into realms of Beethovenian
unexpectedness. There is an intensity and ear for detail in their
performance of this quartet which takes the tougher sections in its stride,
integrating where other players place extra weight. The second movement
Vivace with its remarkable but slightly mad repetitions is taken with
swiftness, the strangest of sections passing like the storms in a programme
concerto by Vivaldi. The emotional heart of
Op. 135 is of course the
slow third movement, Zehetmair choosing to emphasise the
cantata or
lyrical aspects, giving the music vocal fluidity rather than lingering in an
attempt to make time stand still. Time slows down and the heartstrings are
tugged, but this is
tranquillo sought in quietude rather than
overextended lines. This movement comes in at 6:27, which is a minute
shorter than the admirable but slightly swoopy Hagen Quartet on DG, but by
no means the shortest when put against 5:56 from the enjoyable but rather
less moving Skampa Quartet on Supraphon. I love the vocal style and gesture
given to the
“Muss es sein? Es muss sin” element in the
last movement, and you could imagine the whole thing as the best of
Mozartean operatic finales, full of little solos, secretive asides and
discussions, and after the greatest dangers have passed the most rousing of
closing ensembles.
Bruckner’s
String Quartet in C minor was written as a
student exercise at a time when he was being given orchestration lessons by
Otto Kitzler. The manuscript was only rediscovered in 1950 in Munich and has
received less attention than the F major quartet, but this is a still highly
polished and effective work. Bruckner aged 38 was hardly an apprentice by
this time, and while working within the conventions and techniques of Mozart
and Bach still creates a piece which can fully stand its ground. The
Zehetmair Quartet responds to this piece very much as if it were part of the
central repertoire, and with its gorgeous
Andante, sprightly
Scherzo and virtuoso final
Rondo this is a highly enjoyable
work which, far from being placed on a pedestal by the musicians, is
delivered very much as if its status was never in question.
Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s
String Quartet No. 2 is held in
high regard by Thomas Zehetmair, seeing it as “a large scale,
nostalgic drama, full of wisdom”. This is indeed a remarkable work,
engaging us with a clear feel for form and logic as well as plenty of
melodic and harmonic fingerprints, but confounding us through extremes of
drama and elusive dissonances which if anything go beyond those of
Bartók. My main reference for this work and other of Hartmann’s
chamber music has for a while been the admirable multi-disc Cybele release
(see
review), which includes interviews and essential listening
for those wishing to know more about this still somewhat under-recognised
composer. In absolute terms I think I would go for the Zehetmair Quartet for
the eloquent passion they express in this work, pushing further to the
boundaries of the possible than do the Doelen Quartet without crossing over
into uncontrolled hysteria. The Doelen Quartet hits more of an air of
mystery in the opening, compared with the desolation expressed by the
Zehetmairs, and the latter’s dynamic extremes hit the war-torn feel of
the work more directly, and with less of a feel of technical effort. These
points are frequently more questions of taste than an outright declaration
of superiority, but if it’s only Hartmann’s
String Quartet
No. 2 you are after then this ECM recording is the one to have.
Heinz Holliger’s
String Quartet No. 2 is dedicated to
Elliott Carter and was written for the Zehetmair Quartet, taking us well
into the 21
st century and a full-blown avant-garde palette of
textures and intensely restless sonorities. Zehetmair describes it as an
“explosion of fantasy”, but the composer makes the admission
that he saw writing for string quartet with as a daunting prospect:
“There is hardly another musical genre which is so burdened by its
history as the string quartet. Whoever composes for this instrumentation
inevitably senses the skeptical and critical stares of the great composers.
This can have a paralyzing and intimidating effect. Perhaps this is the
reason why I have only now dared to rise once more to the great challenge,
34 years after my much criticized 1st String Quartet.”
Holliger’s 1
st String Quartet appears on a Wergo
disc WER 6084-2 and is indeed pretty wild: more concerned with sustained
fields of texture and unusual sonority than the second, but you
wouldn’t really consider Holliger as having transformed himself too
far away from the idiom of the first - rather that he has refined and
reinvented this soundworld to create a greater sense of content and gestural
communicativeness. Annoyingly, the six sections of the piece are listed but
given neither access points nor time references, so we’re left
guessing as to which section we are traversing, though some might be
considered easier to identify than others. There are moments of subtle
beauty amongst the outbursts and intensely frenetic playing which dominate,
and this is the kind of work which yields its rewards with greater
understanding. There is for instance a section in which the players’
voices can be heard, singing sustained lines in a section referred to as
Paul Celan’s “singbarer Rest” or singable remnant. This
elegantly sums up a piece in which each note might be seen as a remnant or
echo of the past to which Holliger is so sensitive.
With its superbly detailed recording this is a remarkably fine
string quartet release and one with many features making it uniquely
attractive to chamber music collectors. Playing time isn’t the best
value ever seen, but performances of this quality just about get away
without having filler tracks. The substantial booklet with photos and notes
in German and English is too fat to fit easily back into the teeth of the
jewel case lid, so I recommend slotting in the bottom first, and gently
bending it until you can likewise slot in the top. This way you can avoid
chewing up the spine trying to slide it in the usual way.
Dominy Clements
