Piano Quintet, Op. 15 (1921/22) [29:32]
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 16 (1920/23) [27:56]
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26 (1933) [21:33]
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 34 (1944/45) [24:13]
Aron Quartet (Ludwig Muller (violin); Barna Kobori (violin); Georg Hamann (viola);
Christophe Pantillon (cello)); Henri Sigfridsson (piano)
rec. April 2008 (Op. 15), January, July, December 2007, ORF Funkhaus im Großen Sendesaal; RP3, Argentinierstraße, Vienna, Austria
CPO 777 436-2 [57:33 + 45:51]
Erich Korngold achieved his peak early realising an international
triumph in 1920 aged only twenty-three with the three act opera
Die tote Stadt. Korngold produced some fourteen chamber
works in a thirty-five year period and this CPO release comprises
four such all written in his typically lush romantic language.
The Piano Quintet and set of three String Quartets
were all written between one year and twenty-five years after
Die tote Stadt. It seems fitting that this music should
be played by Vienna based musicians as Korngold, for many years,
considered the Austrian capital his home.
Released in 2010 this is not a new issue but having reviewed the
Aron’s outstanding 2014 CPO release of the Sextet,
Op. 11 and Suite, Op. 23 (see review)
it felt important that MusicWeb International should have a commentary
on this recording of these wonderful scores.
The works on this two disc set are presented in order of completion
commencing with the Piano Quintet. It was Korngold who
played the piano part at the première of the work given
in Hamburg in 1923. Cast in three movements with the middle and
Finale containing sets of variations this lasts here
almost half an hour. Make no mistake this is a very fine work:
highly appealing and breezy with the piano part adding significantly
to the interest. There’s a handsome and comforting opening
movement marked Mäßiges Zeitmaß with
rising figures. One can easily imagine Korngold travelling through
the verdant Tyrolean countryside on a warm spring day.
From 1920/23 the String Quartet No. 1 is in four movements
and was introduced in Vienna by the Rosé Quartet in 1924.
It seems that an early completed section was given as a present
to Korngold’s father Julius a newspaper music critic. Particularly
enjoyable is the extremely lyrical opening Allegro molto.
It’s bold and moody and the tender Adagio quasi fantasia
feels like an intimate love letter.
On CD 2 the String Quartet No. 2 was written in 1933
prior to Korngold’s first trip across the Atlantic to the
United States to assist Hollywood film director Max Reinhardt.
Composed mainly at Korngold’s country home in the Austrian
Alps at Gmunden on Lake Trumsee this four movement score was also
premiered by the Rosé Quartet in 1934 again in Vienna.
In the striking opening Allegro it is easy to imagine
the spectacular autumnal beauty of tree leaves changing colour.
The winning Finale marked Waltz has a carefree
optimism seemingly defiant of Hitler’s destabilisation efforts
in Austria at the time.
Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 Korngold, a Jew,
fled to the safety of the United States and settled in Hollywood.
It was there in 1944/45 that he wrote his four movement String
Quartet No. 3, his final work for string quartet. Korngold
had actually given sketches of the score to his wife Luzi at Christmas
in 1944. It was in this score that Korngold first included material
from his film music notably the Edward A. Blatt film Between
Two Worlds (1944) in the Scherzo and the Michael
Curtiz film The Sea Wolf (1941) in the Sostenuto.
Another feature is how Korngold adopts a more progressive approach
by using an economical style of writing employing limpid chromaticism.
Details of the first performance have been discovered by Troy
Dixon, of the Korngold Society. It took place in 1949 and was
given by the New Art Quartet at an ‘Evenings on the Roof’
concert at the Wilshire Ebell Theater, Los Angeles. The opening
Allegro moderato is quite outstanding being intense and
serious in quality and tinged with a reflective quality. The rhythmic
Scherzo is notable, full of scurrying mephistophelian
figures.
The CPO engineering team has excelled. The sound is warm and clear
with the piano nicely balanced with the strings. I found the liner
notes by Korngold biographer Brendan G. Carroll well written and
informative. The ebb and flow, warm and expressive, is captured
splendidly by the Aron Quartet who clearly cherish this music.
In the Quintet Henri Sigfridsson demonstrates a deep
understanding of the music. All the players are characteristically
sensitive and thoughtful, displaying impressive unity, a wide
colour palette and lovely beauty of tone. Stunningly performed
and recorded this release serves Korngold’s engaging chamber
music eminently well.
Michael Cookson
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