MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb for £14.60 (UK) postage paid World-wide.
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Purchase button

 

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 (1960) [20:26]
Six Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, Op. 143 (1973, arr. contralto and string quartet by Auerbach, 2005) [19:31].
Lera AUERBACH (b. 1973)
Cetera desunt (String Quartet No. 3) (2006) [21'10].
Zoryana Kushpler (mezzo)
Petersen String Quartet (Conrad Muck, Daniel Bell (violins); Friedermann Weigle (viola); Henry-David Varema (cello)).
rec. Deutschland Radio Studio K10, 2-4 November 2005, 14-15 March 2006, 29-30 May 2006. SACD DDD
CAPRICCIO 71 104 [61:07]



About a year ago I gave a lukewarm response to the Petersen's disc of Shostakovich First and Fourth Quartets, coupled with the Piano Quintet. Here again we find the quartet coupling a Shostakovich quartet with other works – this time with significantly more striking results.
 
First, though, the 'pure' Shostakovich, the famous Eighth Quartet, possibly the composer's best known work in this medium. I am sure Rudolf Barshai's arrangement of the work as a Chamber Symphony has helped. The Eighth is dedicated “To the memory of the victims of fascism and war”  and is an astonishingly moving tribute that speaks of the most heartfelt humanitarianism. The DSCH motto is prevalent here – unmistakable, in fact. Another favourite Shostakovich pastime, self-quotation - which was to reach its zenith in the Fifteenth Symphony - permeates the music. The Fifth Symphony, the Second Piano Trio, Lady Macbeth and the First Symphony all crop up, but none as strongly as the First Cello Concerto.
 
The sound on this disc is stunning. There is a crystalline clarity to the quartet, yet there is no lack of warmth, no trace of the clinical. What is more, stretches such as the Allegro molto - the relentless second movement, lasting here 2:30 - carry all the vehemence they deserve, while the recording allows all detail to be heard. There is never any question of the recording being 'stretched' by the players' grim determination. The third movement makes overt reference to the First Cello Concerto while the fourth combines this with the Lady Macbeth quote - a work banned since 1936 – the chosen passage is that to the words “We didn't see each other all day”. The Petersen Quartet, despite their obvious energy, is actually at its most impressive in passages of half-light. The brief-ish finale (3:53) emerges as a profound lament. It is not unrealistic to at least mention this performance in the same breath as the truly great accounts of this work.
 
The Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva celebrates the work of a poetess who sought escape from the authorities in suicide; her dates are 1892-1941.  The first movement rises naturally out of the ashes of the Eighth Quartet. A solo line announces the bare melodic statement by the contralto to the first lines of the first movement, entitled “My Poems”, in which the poetess avers her certainty that her poetry's time will come. It is an emotion of hope undermined by the shifting, definitely dark scoring. Kushpler has exactly the right plaintive timbre to her voice. The second movement, “Where does such tenderness come from?”, begins in similar manner. The question of the title recurs as an insistent refrain before “Hamlet's Dialogue with Conscience” opens with the closest we have had so far to a consonance - which is not the same as saying that it is consonant! The text is as black as can be, and Shostakovich's setting is unrelentingly bleak in response. Kushpler articulates her cries beautifully, never once breaking her tone but still portraying real anguish. Resolute defiance is the keyword for “The Poet and the Tsar”; the strings invoke the drum-beat of the title in the next movement, “No, the drum beat” before explicit defiance once more comes to the fore. Finally, “To Anna Akhmatova”, a tribute to the great poetess and a dirge in all but name. Kushpler is at the height of her powers here. Memorable.
 
Interestingly, Shostakovich's Op. 143 was written in 1973, the year of its arranger's birth. As you can see from the headnote, the arrangement itself dates from 2005. Even hotter off the press is the Third String Quartet, Cetera desunt, dated 2006! Poetry is clearly important to Auerbach. She writes of the dangers of writing on one's own compositions in the booklet! She makes use of the strambiotto romagnuolo sonnet (ab ab cc dd). Auerbach uses what she calls “musical rhymes” to shadow this structure. Auerbach uses Latin in her booklet notes to identify her creed - “Nomina sunt odiosa”; “Names are hateful” - Cicero, I think? And yet she uses Latin, too, in the title of this quartet. It is called “Cetera desunt” - “The rest is missing” first, and then String Quartet No. 3 in parentheses. This is also the title of the sixth and final movement.
 
No doubting the DSCH presence at the quartet's opening, though. Strong and resolute, it heralds Auerbach's own uncompromising language. Shostakovich rhythms are transformed and emphasised by slashing violins; her soliloquies are just as potent as the Master's. Auerbach's language is as concentrated as late Shostakovich. There is a feeling that the music has been distilled from a greater whole, something perhaps mirrored in the title of the final movement.
 
A fascinating disc. The programming shows real individuality; the recording is top-drawer, the playing first class and the music both raw and sophisticated at the same time. Do try to hear this.
 
Colin Clarke
 



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.