Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
String Quintet in F major WAB112 [42:58]
Intermezzo in D minor WAB113 [3:48]
Alberni String Quartet (Howard Davis (violin I); Peter Pople (violin II); Roger Best (viola); David Smith (cello))
Garfield Jackson (viola)
rec. 1990 in St. George the Martyr, Holborn, London, England
CRD 3456 [46:46]
Bruckner composed very little chamber music and what exists
does not count as amongst his finest work. But interestingly, compared with
Brahms, there is not the same impression of the music seeking to break its
bounds into a full orchestral dimension, even though passages frequently sound
like a sketch in short score for one of the Symphonies, or echo them on a
smaller scale. Although composed in 1878-79 – between the Fifth and
Sixth Symphonies – it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that the unsettling
shifts in harmony which belie the graceful dance of the second movement Scherzo
look as far ahead as the feverish Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony, as do the
chromaticisms of the Trio to the Ninth’s equivalent. The glowing harmonies
of the Adagio will call to mind the searing sonorities of the slow movements
of the Seventh and Eight Symphonies, as well as the Cavatina of Beethoven’s
Op. 130 String Quartet, whilst the more dynamic finale, building up a flustered
head of steam over a static pedal figure mimics the parallel movement of the
Fourth. In short, the work offers plenty for Brucknerians to spot comparisons
and influences from the composer’s other work, and listeners unconvinced
by those gargantuan orchestral statements might find this a more amenable
entrance into that forbidding oeuvre.
In this re-issue from CRD, the Alberni Quartet give a generally lyrical and
amiable reading of the work, heralded at the very outset by the dreamy, languid
character of the first subject, and some sweet-toned playing from the strings,
even from the violas who are often asked to play quite high in their range.
Their manner works well in the more relaxed sections of the work, such as
the first section of the opening movement, the elegant dance of the Scherzo,
and the Gesangsperiode second subject of the finale.
But the Quartet remain rather too wedded to that approach and so fail to bring
out the contrasts in the work’s edifice, which is constructed in a similar
way as the Symphonies’ ‘cathedrals of sound’ for want of
a better term. Hence there is lacking a more dramatic push forwards in the
climactic sections – often clearly signalled as such by Bruckner with
his unison passages striving upwards to a peak, such as in the exposition
of the first movement. Admittedly Bruckner’s compositional method can
be awkward, and the arpeggios of the finale’s coda are not entirely
convincing, but the Albernis do also dissipate tension here, so the conclusion
is not entirely satisfying in this performance. That is a shame after the
intensity of feeling drawn out of the preceding Adagio even if, again, the
contrasts between the blocks of music are not fully sculpted.
The Intermezzo included on this disc was a substitution by Bruckner for the
original Scherzo when Josef Hellmesberger – who requested the work from
the composer – found the latter too difficult. Both movements use the
same Trio, and so that is omitted in this recording of the Intermezzo. The
Albernis play this decorously, with a certain Viennese charm and observing
the articulation of the contrasting sections perhaps better than in the other
sections of the Quintet.
The Brandis Quartet on the Nimbus label offer a more competitive version with
a greater sense of the work’s architecture, as do the Raphael Ensemble
(review),
but they have all now been overtaken by the Fitzwilliam Quartet’s recording
for Linn Records (review),
which offers a more searching, well-rounded interpretation of the work, as
well as a more complete survey of Bruckner’s string chamber music in
that it also offers the String Quartet.
Curtis Rogers
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