Eugene D’ALBERT (1864-1932)
String Quartet in E flat major, Op.11 [30:07]
String Quartet in A minor, Op.7 [35:10]
Rheinhold Quartet
rec. 5-7 January 2015, Großer Lindensaal, Markkleeberg, Germany
CPO 555 012-2 [65:33]
In his youth Eugene D’Albert was well-schooled in music
and he became a much-celebrated and sought-after pianistic prodigy. The resulting
fame enabled him to move easily in high society and he was taken under the
wing of Liszt. Subsequently he was introduced to many great musicians, including
Clara Schumann, Richter, von Bulow, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms and Joachim. His
reputation today is probably based more on his considerable fame as a pianist
than as a composer although, had he not perceived performing to be the quicker
route to success, that position might be reversed. In between the performances
in his very busy concert schedule he still found time to do quite a bit of
composition and his list of works (including a symphony and concertos for
piano and cello) runs as far as Op.34, together with no fewer than twenty
one operas. Whilst most of the operas came from later in his career most of
his instrumental and larger works were composed before his mid-thirties and
the end of the nineteenth century. D’Albert’s two string quartets
represent his only forays into chamber music (apart from works for solo piano).
The first quartet dates from 1887 and was dedicated to Joachim. It appears
that the dedicatee was sent the parts with a view to currying favour and a
possible performance. Joachim responded amiably and with great courtesy -
although he obviously had reservations about some aspects of the music and
suggested minor reworkings. In spite of the matter remaining a source of dispute
between the two, however, D’Albert never changed a note.
The quartet has the character of its movements designated in German. The passionate
first movement (“Leidenschaftlich Bewegt”) is an interesting
construction, in which the strings often play simultaneously with a variety
of conflicting durations, coming together in unison only at the climaxes -
of which there are several, gradually escalating in intensity. A tranquil
middle section leads to a tempestuous fugato. As the author of the entertaining
and very readable booklet note puts it, it is “…as if D’Albert
wanted to present himself as the master of every contrapuntal sophistication
in his very first quartet movement”. The only problem is that the movement
lacks a really memorable theme. The expressive slow second movement (“Langsam
mit Ausdruck”) is subject to continuous variation, apparently drawing
on themes from the first movement, although this is not obvious. There is
a faint suggestion of the hymn of thanksgiving from Beethoven’s Op.
132 quartet and, after a lovely melody over a pizzicato ’cello bass
line, the music ends softly. The third movement which starts moderately brisk
(“Mässig Bewegt”) is in triple time and accelerates into
a scherzando. The last movement (“Thema mit Variationen”)
uses a simple theme as the basis for seven variations, revisiting much of
the quartet’s previous material in the process. Once again the music
is not particularly memorable but the final variation is whipped into a virtuosic
fugato – presumably designed to provoke applause. It seems that this
goal was achieved and, despite Joachim’s reservations, the performances
of the quartet in Berlin were regarded as a complete success.
According to one of D’Albert’s pupils, Edwin Fischer, the composer
“….read scores in the way that others read the newspaper”
and he obviously absorbed compositional styles like a sponge. The second quartet
(placed first on the CD) was composed over the period of 1891-3 spanning the
break-up of the composer’s first marriage and his concert tours with
the pianist Teresa Carreno, who subsequently became his second wife. (After
the end of this tempestuous and short-lived marriage, Carreno produced her
own emotion-laden offering in the genre – her only quartet.)
The second quartet was dedicated to D’Albert’s good friend Brahms
who, like Joachim, responded to receipt of the score with a mixture of cordiality
and criticism. In spite of other evidence of eclecticism in the quartet, Brahms’
response implied that D’Albert had sought guidance from the sonatas
of Clementi, regarded as a minor composer at the time, and this was something
of a blow to D’Albert. In fact the quartet was to be fairly well received
but, like so many of his other compositions that were regarded as “works
of the famous pianist”, it rather fell by the wayside when it came to
subsequent programming.
The first movement is a subdued Andante con moto which has some similarities
with Beethoven’s Op. 74 quartet (‘The Harp’) although these
are not particularly evident. The second movement Allegro vivace
is a murmuring Mendelssohnian moto perpetuo, which is mostly played piano.
It has a trio which is played twice – the second time with mutes. Apparently,
this movement’s “spirited intensification” made it a favourite
of the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick. Dvorak is cited as the model for the
third movement Adagio. This would have to be early Dvorak –
the themes lack the memorability of that composer’s later music. That
said, the music gradually becomes more nervous and there are several excitable
outbursts which may reflect the marital difficulties which the composer was
experiencing at the time of composition. The fourth movement Allegro
sets out triumphantly in a style reminiscent of Schumann – although
the other influences from earlier in the quartet are also brought back into
the mix.
The performances here are good but there is a slightly pinched tone, typical
of quartets of not quite the top rank. A quick comparison of the Op.11 work
with an old radio recording of a resinous performance (nla) by the Kreuzberg
Quartet indicates that the Rheinhold are considerably swifter and less inclined
to wallow and this is very much to the music’s advantage. I was unable
to make detailed comparisons with the recent recording by the Sarastro Quartet
on the Christophorus label but reference to quick snatches available on several
websites indicates that the Sarastro bring out the counterpoint more effectively
and have a slightly more agreeable tone. Their tempi seem to be pretty similar
on the whole.
The CPO recording is clear, with a reasonable amount of reverberation. The
players sit well behind the plane of the speakers so the sound tends to lack
the kind of presence that would have helped.
I quite enjoyed this CD but, judged by these performances and recording, these
two well-crafted works may struggle to achieve more than a very occasional
outing, so I would advise sampling the rival offerings before purchase.
Bob Stevenson
Previous review: Stephen
Greenbank
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