David Diamond, a little like Peter Mennin and Roger Sessions,
'basks' in peripheral light. His case was much aided by the CBS (latterly
Sony) recording of his Fourth Symphony the opening of which is a miracle
of impressionistic weaving, beautifully put across by Bernstein and the
NYPO.
This disc is the first chapter in a four part series
in which the Washington DC-based Potomac Quartet are to record all the
string quartets by David Diamond. Further details from Steve Honigberg
are appended at the end of this review.
The Concerto is dedicated to Roussel to whom the composer
owed much during his Parisian years and later. Roussel introduced him
to Charles Munch. The four movements of the Concerto rotate around a
stylistic axis which has much to do with Tippett (presumably mere coincidence),
with Bach and with Shostakovich. The Tippett I have in mind is the pointed,
almost brash, energy and poetry that plays like a flame over the Concerto
for Double String Orchestra.
A decade later the Third Quartet is dedicated to the
memory of Allela Cornell 'in tender love and devotion 1914-1946). Diamond
was living with Cornell (who was a painter) at the time that she committed
suicide by drinking half a bottle of hydrochloric acid. Her death was
protracted. Diamond (in the interview which forms the booklet note)
lays claim to loving conversation. The quartet is an ideal medium for
the suggestion of that activity. Taking the lithe and melodious allegro
vivo we can hear a barnstormer of a conversation among four vivacious,
vital and divergent voices. The vivacity spills over into the allegretto
though it proceeds at a less headlong clip. Again the parallels can
be made with Tippett or is it Tippett with Diamond? The concluding Adagio
is 11.35, 5 minutes longer than the next longest movement. This powerful
arching and stretching elegy is redolent of Josef Suk's St Wenceslas
Chorale.
Almost twenty years later came the Eighth Quartet which
is made of sterner stuff: dour, fugal, subtly dissonant, harsh, barbed
possessed of a restlessness familiar from many twentieth century works.
The conversation between the composer and Alex Jeschke
is printed in English only. The performances and the recording do not
disappoint in any way.
I am grateful to Steve Honigberg, the cellist of the
Potomac, and the guiding light and vigour behind the three Holocaust-centred
'Darkness and Light' discs, for sending me a review copy of the present
disc.
Rob Barnett
Potomac String Quartet