Everyone interested in Brahms knows of his enthusiasm for Hungarian music,
and his Hungarian Dances, transcribed for a variety of forces, remain
popular. However, he was more than a cultural dilettante. As the excellent
sleeve-note by Kenneth Chalmers explains, Brahms was an assiduous and
careful student of Hungarian traditional music. As well as collecting a
large quantity of printed Hungarian music he also made his own
transcriptions of Hungarian melodies and drew on them in his own original
compositions.
This CD explores these links and is led by the playing of Andreas
Ottensamer. He is very well qualified for this being of mixed Austrian and
Hungarian background. His father and brother are both clarinettists in the
Vienna Philharmonic and he himself is now principal clarinet of the Berlin
Philharmonic. He plays the Viennese variant of the German-style clarinet.
This is rather different from the Boehm system instrument which is more
common in the UK and elsewhere. The most visible difference is in the
keywork, as you can see from the numerous pictures that adorn the booklet of
Ottensamer with his clarinet. More important is the design of the bore,
which has a longer cylindrical portion than the Boehm, and also a smaller
mouthpiece and reed. The Viennese version of this has a very wide bore. The
result is that in the hands of a good player the sound is wonderfully liquid
and creamy. Part of the interest and pleasure of this CD is to hear
Ottensamer’s characteristic tone, which is highly appropriate for
Brahms.
The Brahms Clarinet Quintet is the main work here and the first piece on
the disc. When Brahms heard the clarinettist Richard Mühfeld he came out of
retirement to write for him: two sonatas, a trio and this quintet, which is
the finest of them all; it’s a shame that he didn’t write a concerto. I
defer consideration of this performance to consider the rest of the
programme. This moves progressively away from Brahms and towards Hungarian
traditional music, in graduated stages, adding instruments as it goes. They
have all been arranged by Stephan Koncz to feature the clarinet; he himself
also plays the cello here. After the quintet we start with two gentle
arrangements of waltzes, which add a double bass to the line-up for the
quintet. Then we have two of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances. Neither were original
compositions so here we have arrangements of arrangements, the first fairly
close to Brahms and the second much freer. What Ottensamer and Koncz have
cleverly done is to take this halfway back to traditional music by adding a
slow, partly improvised
hallgáto section at the beginning and
including a cimbalon in the ensemble. We then have two traditional tunes
arranged by Leó Weiner, who, like his contemporaries Bartók and Kodaly, both
studied folk music and composed original works. Finally we have a medley of
dance tunes from Transylvania, now in Romania but formerly in Hungary, which
add an accordion to what we may now call the band. Even here some real
Brahms creeps in.
All this is great fun but what about the performance of the quintet? This
is a very gentle and romantic reading, indeed quite schmalzy, with
Ottensamer leaning on the first notes of phrases in a way I remember from
Norbert Brainin of the Amadeus Quartet. This is the Viennese way, and one
can’t complain since his credentials are impeccable. Yet Ottensamer can be
as fleet of foot as is needed though his virtuosity is without ostentation
and one likes him better for it. The string quartet is an
ad hoc
ensemble of soloists mostly with Vienna or Berlin connections. They play
with enthusiasm and fine musicianship but one can tell that they are not an
established ensemble. This is not going to be your main version of this work
but here we have a concept album, which is, just for once, well conceived
and well carried out. The recording is impeccable.
Stephen Barber
Previous review:
Brian Wilson (Recording of the Month)
