Mátyás SEIBER (1905-1960)
Chamber Works and Songs
Sarabande and Gigue in Old Style (1924?) [6:45]
To Poetry (Invocation; Sonnet; Tears; Timor mortis; Epilogue) (1952)
[14:33]
Quatre chansons populaires françaises - Four French Folk Songs (Reveillez-vous
- Awake; J'ai descendu - I came down; Le Rossignol - The nightingale; Marguerite
elle est malade - Margaret she is ill) (1923?) [6:27]
Phantasy for cello and piano [5:57]
Four Greek Folk Songs (O my love how long; Have pity on me; Each time
my love you say farewell; O your eyes are dark and beautiful) (1923?) [6:27]
Sonata da Camera for violin and cello (1925) [15:13]
Concert Piece for violin and piano (1954) [8:01]
Introduction and Allegro for cello and accordion [4:51]
Petöfi Songs (Black earth; It's raining raining; My darling has
hurt me greatly; Girls are out; Thousands of cherries do grow upon the tree)
(1923) [5:48]
Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano); Andrea Mélath (mezzo); David Frühwirth
(violin); Péter Szabó (cello); László Ernyei (accordion);
Zsusza Kollár (piano)
rec. Hungaroton Studio, 6-8, 11-13 April, 28 May 2004. DDD
HUNGAROTON CLASSIC HCD 32405 [78:23]
One picks up the same breadth of style and development trail here as in the
more recent Seiber string quartets on Delphian. We move from ethnic melodic
tonality to dissonance with a lyrical core.
Seiber catches the romantic Finzian tones inherent in the Sarabande and
Gigue in Old Style. David Frühwirth (violin) and Zsusza Kollár
(piano) are utterly captivating in their hold on leisurely tension. We already
know Frühwirth from the masterly emigré double album on Avie which
also includes pieces by Wellesz, Spinner, Goldschmidt, Gellhorn, Tauský,
Gál, Reizenstein and Rankl. Them comes the masterly song-cycle To
Poetry with tranced settings sung with preternatural attention to breath
control and engagement with the words. Lesley-Jane Rogers is indeed a great
singer. Timor Mortuis, with its Dies irae is acted and
moulded to words and mood changes. The pianist’s and the singer’s
jaguar-swift mercurial responsiveness provides a tight match with the words.
This cycle celebrates the stilly beauty of the stars. It contrasts with the
lighter and brighter troubadour tone of Quatre chansons populaires françaises. These
are sung by Andrea Mélath. They stand with Canteloube’s Auvergne
settings in their winsome innocence and raucous and rough-edged humour - listen
to the last song Marguerite elle est malade. These songs have delights
indeed but they stand away from the depths of To Poetry which, had there
been any justice, Seiber would have orchestrated to yet more magical effect.
It was written for Peter Pears whose reputation also possesses a similarly
anthology-based work by Britten, the Serenade. The Phantasy for
cello and piano is a macabre and dissonant piece seemingly much inflected by
nightmare. It demands much from the players who in this case are equal to its
extraordinary angular demands. The Four Greek Folksongs take us back
to the silvery voice of Ms Rogers. A Mediterranean magic casts its chuckling
spell over Have pity on me. The set reminded me of the Swann Greek Folk
Songs sequence on Divine
Art. The Sonata da Camera is for violin and cello (1925). It’s
a combination in which Kodály triumphed but Seiber is not far behind.
For a work of his youngest years it has a concentrated inward sobriety and
a macabre chittering second movement - of two. The Concert Piece for
violin and piano. The Introduction and Allegro for Cello and Accordion
is jaunty and lighter in mood and makes full use of the crunching Hungarian
and oddly Irish jiggery of it all. It is a virtuoso display as one may expect
from a composer who wrote quite a range of accordion pieces including a Mathis
method of teaching accordion in ten sessions. It has the same mood profile
as film music (Auiric for example) and I thought it utterly brilliant. The
disc ends with the Five Petofi Songs which set Hungarian texts the first
of which, Black Earth, in its heroic cast recalled for me Kodaly’s Psalmus
Hungaricus. The goblin caper that is It’s raining raining makes
marble hard impacts out of the pattering raindrops. It’s full of the
Hungarian ‘sway’ we associate with Rozsa. The third and fifth songs
recall the manner of the French Folk Songs but also link with those
of Warlock and Moeran. Enjoy the smile in Andrea Mélath’s voice.
The much needed notes are by Tamas Varkonyi who is more than equal to the task.
The texts are printed in sung words and in translation into English throughout.
The page layout is eccentric but it works.
This disc stands shoulder to shoulder with the Delphian CD of the three string
quartets in offering the foundation for a vigorous Seiber revival. I do hope
that my sanguine expectations of seeing recordings of the Ulysses cantata
for tenor solo, choir and orchestra (1947; 45 mins; Schott), Three Fragments
from the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (20mins?; Schott), the Fantasia
Concertante for violin and string orchestra (1943), the Elegy for
viola and small orchestra (1954; 8 mins - once recorded by Cecil Aronowitz
for Decca), Tre Pezzi for cello and orchestra (1957; 20 mins; Schott)
and the Improvisations for Jazz Band and Orchestra (with John Dankworth) (1959)
which was, once upon a time, recorded with the Dankworth band, the LPO and
conductor Hugo Rignold. There’s also the Violin Sonata (1960) which has
already been recorded by Frühwirth on Avie.
Who knows, perhaps Chandos would consider a film music volume dedicated to
Seiber’s work for the British cinema industry.
Rob Barnett