This recording of Volume 1 of Spohr’s Double Quartets
has been available for some time as a download from Naxos’s
sister company, classicsonline.com, in which form it was reviewed
some months ago by Brian Reinhart - see review.
Spohr is in grave danger of having the 250th anniversary
of his death overshadowed by commemorations of centenaries and
half-centenaries of Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn and
Martinů. He may not be such a major figure as any of them,
but he certainly doesn’t deserve to go unnoticed. His
Clarinet Concertos and his Octet and Nonet figure reasonably
largely in the recorded repertoire, but the rest of his chamber
music is hardly well known. Naxos’s other sister company,
Marco Polo, have been doing their best by him for some time,
with a multi-volume set of his String Quartets; I reviewed Volume
12 of that series almost two years ago (8.225316 - see review).
Naxos have also reissued a recommendable series of ex-Marco
Polo recordings of Spohr’s Quintets and Sextet. Now I’m
pleased to see that the Forde Ensemble will be doing the same
for his Double Quartets. There’s just one more volume
to come.
I must admit at the outset that these Double Quartets are not
as immediately enticing and enjoyable as the Nonet and Octet;
if you have yet to embark on collecting his chamber music, that’s
where you should probably start. The ASV Gold recording of the
Nonet is available at bargain price (GLD4026, with the Septet
- see review
by Glyn Pursglove) and the classic 1958 Vienna Octet performance
of the Octet may be had from Testament (SBT1261, also with the
Septet) or as a download in good 320kb/s mp3 sound from passionato.com
(Decca 466 5802 , with Schubert’s even more wonderful
Octet - see review
by Harry Downey).
The Nash Ensemble combines the Octet and Nonet on a mid-price
CRD recording which I recommended in its download form (CRD3354).
As well as being available from theclassicalshop.net which I
mentioned in the October,
2008, Download Roundup, that CRD recording can be had for
the price of just 8 tracks from emusic.com. The Gaudier Ensemble
also combine these two works on Hyperion CDA66699, described
by Colin Clarke as ‘a perfect next port of call’
after the Piano Quintet - see review.
Please note that there is one digit too many in the catalogue
number which CC gives.
Of the two works on the present recording, only the Double Quartet
No.2 begins to approach the charm of the Octet and Nonet. Its
predecessor largely passed me by, despite - or perhaps because
of - its nods in the direction of Haydn and Mozart. I’m
sure that the eminent players who from time to time come together
as the Forde Ensemble do their best by it. The second, as Naxos’s
own notes admit, integrates the players into a more evenly balanced
whole. Spohr was finding his way here; Beethoven’s largest-scale
chamber music, the Septet and Serenade, and Schubert’s
delightful Octet were of a completely different kind, combining
strings and wind. Mendelssohn’s Octet was composed for
the equivalent of two string quartets, but he integrated them,
whereas Spohr retains the individuality of the two participating
quartets. As he put it, Mendelssohn’s players ‘do
not concert and interchange in double choir with each other’,
as his did.
The quality of the performers available to Spohr when he wrote
the first Double Quartet was limited but he felt able to write
more adventurously for its successor. Whatever challenges there
are in this work are ably dealt with by the Forde Ensemble.
Like Brian Reinhart, I’m looking forward to hearing the
second and concluding volume. Also like BR, I haven’t
yet heard the rival performances on Hyperion, though I hope
to remedy this by including it and the Gaudier Ensemble’s
Octet and Nonet in a future Download Roundup. The price differential
between what will be two Naxos CDs and the Hyperion is not quite
as great as BR implies, since the latter is offered as a Dyad
two-for-one set (CDD22014).
I haven’t repeated many of the things which BR says in
his analysis of the music and his account of its genesis, since
I agree with almost everything that he writes. Like him, I find
this first volume attractive and, with excellent playing and
very good recording, well worth its modest price. Like him,
though, I also believe that you may prefer to wait for Volume
2. Better still, if you don’t yet know Spohr’s Octet
and Nonet, do avail yourself of recording(s) of those wonderful
works.
Brian Wilson
see also review by Brian
Reinhart
Forde
Ensemble 
