RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Alois HÁBA (1893-1973)
Complete String Quartets
Hába Quartet (Sha Katsouris (violin); Hovhannes Mokatsian ( violin); Peter Zelienka (viola); Arnold Ilg (cello)); Sigune von Osten (speaker) (Tagebuchnotizen)
rec. July, September, November 2003, February 2006, hr-Sendesaal, Frankfurt
NEOS 11001-04 [4 CDs: 281:35]
It was the 1990s pioneering accounts of Alois Hába’s
complete String Quartets by the Stamitz Quartet on Bayer Records (100 282-5)
that introduced me to these wonderful, enriching chamber works. They have
given me many hours of listening pleasure. So, it was a delight when I received
this new recording of this rarely heard cycle from the enterprising Munich-based
contemporary CD label Neos, played by the eponymous Hába Quartet.
The Hába Quartet have a long and distinguished association with the string
quartets of this composer. The ensemble originally dates back to 1946, when
it was founded in Prague by the violinist Dušan Pandula. From the early
days there was always a strong bias towards contemporary composers including
Martinů, Berio and the microtonal music of Alois Hába, who dedicated
the last twelve of his quartets to them. For political reasons, the group
changed its name to the Novak Quartet in the nineteen-fifties. In 1968, they
disbanded, but were reformed in 1984, re-adopting their original name of the
Hába Quartet. Today, their repertoire embraces much of the standard fare,
with an emphasis on contemporary music, and a continuity of the tradition
of performing the complete quartet oeuvre of their namesake.
The Czech composer Alois Hába (1893-1973) was born in the small village of
Vizovice in Moravia, which was then part of the Austrian Empire. His musical
gifts surfaced young, taking up the violin as a child and being aided by perfect
pitch. His father had a small band, and his mother introduced him to Moravian
folk music. Later he began studies at the Prague Conservatory. His compositional
teachers included Vítěslav Novák in Prague (1914-15) and later Franz
Schreker in Vienna and Berlin (1917-23). From the beginning with Novák, Hába
displayed a tendency to go his own way down the path of experimentation. Novák,
despite being a born and bred traditionalist, was very supportive of his student.
Studies were disrupted by the outbreak of war, and this resulted in him transferring
to Schreker's compositional class two years later. During his studies,
the young composer came under the influence of Ferruccio Busoni and the twelve-tone
technique of Arnold Schoenberg. He also formed a life-long friendship with
the composer Hanns Eisler.
Adopting an innovative compositional stance, Hába became a pioneer of microtonal
music using the quarter-tone scale. He also used others such as sixth-tones
(in his fifth quartet), fifth-tones (sixteenth quartet) and twelfth-tones.
From 1923 he taught composition at the Prague Conservatory and founded a department
of microtonal music. He set forth his ideas in his theoretical writings, most
notably in his book ‘Neue Harmonielehre des diatonischen, chromatischen,
Viertel-, Drittel-, Sechstel-, and Zwölftel-Tonsystems’, which was published
in 1927. He also commissioned quarter-tone and sixth-tone versions of instruments
such as trumpets, clarinets and pianos. As well as microtonality, he incorporated
athematicism into his music. In other words, his music makes as little use
as possible of repetition and variation of distinct melodies and themes.
The Op. 4 Quartet was regarded by the composer as a student work, and he really
didn’t like to include it in the overall quartet oeuvre. It is a pleasing
work, showing that he had a grasp of classical structures. It wasn’t
until his Quartet No. 2 that he embarked on his chosen path of experimentation.
Written in 1920, it was his plunge into microtonality, and was composed in
quarter-tones. It was premiered in 1922 in Berlin by the Havemann Quartet.
By 1967, in the Quartet No. 16, Op. 98, he was using the fifth-tone system,
inspired by a lecture given by the Dutch physicist Adriaan Fokker several
years earlier. In this quartet, the whole tone is divided into five parts.
The work is set in eight short movements. The Quartet No. 11, Op. 87 (1958)
is written in the sixth-tone system. Many may feel this quartet is tinged
with a certain academicism, rather than the result of true inspiration. Yet,
in all of this, many of his quartets contain beautiful melodies, exciting
rhythms and buoyant rhythmical patterns. My favourite is the Quartet No. 7,
Op. 73 (1950-51) ‘Christmas Quartet’, which is a pleasing listen,
even though somewhat backward-looking in style and substance.
The acoustic of hr-Sendesaal, Frankfurt is resonant, airy and spacious and
confers a sympathetic warm ambience on the proceedings. In contrast to the
Stamitz Quartet who sound slightly recessed, the Hába Quartet are more forwardly
placed. The sound achieved by the Neos engineers is more bright and vital
and, as such, an improvement on the older cycle. Interpretively I prefer the
Hábas for their sense of abandon, freshness, spontaneity and a less cautious
and less reverential approach. Sigune von Osten proves a very effective reciter
in the Tagebuchnotizen, of which texts are provided.
These exciting, innovative and imaginative chamber works, displaying an abundant
wealth of ingenuity and invention demand greater exposure. This new release
by Neos will help to redress the balance in bringing these impressively stimulating
compositions to the attention of the listening public. The four CDs are splendidly
housed in a gatefold case. Comprehensive liner-notes in English, German and
French give detailed analysis and historical background to each of the quartets.
Biographical portraits of the artists are included, and interesting black
and white photographs adorn the package. I urge chamber-music lovers to give
these works a try, they can be guaranteed to open up new horizons.
Stephen Greenbank
Track-Listing
CD 1 [74:21]
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 4 (1919) [34:17]
String Quartet No. 6, Op. 70, Suite in Quarter-Tone System (1950) [8:30]
String Quartet No. 9, Op. 79 (1952) [8:56]
String Quartet No. 15, Op. 95 (1964) [5:34]
String Quartet No. 16, Op. 98 in Fifth-Tone System (1967) [12:21]
Tagebuchnotizen (Diary Entries), Op. 101 (1970) [4:36]
CD 2 [71:28]
String Quartet No. 7, Op. 73 (1950 / 1951) [13:48]
String Quartet No. 8, Op. 76 (1951) [10:04]
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 7 in Quarter-Tone System (1920) [16:06]
String Quartet No. 13, Op. 92 (1961) [11:35]
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 12 in Quarter-Tone System (1922) [19:41]
CD 3 [68:53]
String Quartet No. 14, Op. 94 in Quarter-Tone System (1963) [9:08]
Six Compositions for String Quartet, Op. 37 in Sixth-Tone System (1928) [10:56]
String Quartet No. 10, Op. 80 in Sixth-Tone System (1952) [20:17]
String Quartet No. 11, Op. 87 in Sixth-Tone System (1958) [12:36[
String Quartet No. 12, Op. 90 in Quarter-Tone System (1959 / 1960) [15:39]
CD 4 [66:53]
String Quartet No. 4, Op. 14 in Quarter-Tone System (1922) [37:18]
String Quartet No. 5, Op. 15 in Sixth-Tone System (1923) [29:27]
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