John JOUBERT (b. 1927)
String Quartet No.1 in A flat Op.1 (1950) [23:55]
String Quartet No.2 Op.91 (1977) [24:04]
String Quartet No.3 Op.112 (1987, rev. 1988) [21:49]
Brodsky Quartet
rec. St. Mary's Church, Walthamstow, London, 25-26 June 2011 (1 and 3); 20 February 2006 (2 - first issued on SOMMCD 060-2)
SOMM SOMMCD 0113 [70:21]
John Joubert's three string quartets span some thirty years of his
thankfully long creative life. They give a fair idea of his musical progress
over the years emphasising both stylistic evolution and the many common
characteristics to be heard in his large and varied output.
The First String Quartet, the composer's official Opus 1, is clearly
the work of a young composer eager to flex his muscles. It is one in which
there is much youthful and refreshing exuberance inherited from the
composer's admiration for the work of some of his senior contemporaries such
as Walton and Tippett. The outer movements clearly betray Joubert's
admiration for Walton and one can hear echoes of Walton's String Quartet
in A minor composed a few years before the Joubert work. Similarly the
very beginning of the third movement suggests early Tippett. Much of the
music is personal enough, the beautiful slow movement particularly so. It
makes for a remarkable Opus 1 of which the composer may be proud. The First
String Quartet is dedicated To Mary, a pianist and
fellow-student at the Royal Academy whom the composer was to marry a year
later.
The present recording of the Second String Quartet was originally
released as part of an eightieth birthday record (SOMMCD 060-2) that I reviewed here at that time. So I can
best refer anyone to that review. Suffice to say that it is a completely
mature piece in which the composer sometimes glances back at a number of
influences - in particular that of Shostakovich - that have helped mould his
personal language. The first movement, however, is based on the “Muss
es sein?” motive familiar from Beethoven. This works as an
introduction to the following Allegro vivace that also makes play with the
Beethoven motif. There follows a nervous Scherzo in turn followed by a slow
movement “In Memoriam DSCH” that contains some of the finest
music that Joubert has ever penned. The famous DSCH figure only appears at
the very end of the movement. The final movement follows without a break and
attempts an appeased resolution of the tensions of the previous movements.
This it achieves in some measure although some tension remains.
The shadow of Shostakovich again looms large over parts of the Third
String Quartet completed in 1987 and revised in 1988. The rather tense first
movement is permeated with a variant of DSCH and its overall mood is clearly
reminiscent of the Russian composer's music. The second movement is a slow,
substantial fugue bridging into the somewhat lighter-weight Finale that
makes play with two main thematic ideas: a syncopated 'walking' melody as
the composer has it and a quote from his much earlier Piano Concerto
Op.25 of 1957. This fine substantial work ends in a bright,
unproblematic mood dispelling the pressures accumulated in the preceding
movements. The Third String Quartet is dedicated to Howard Ferguson with
whom Joubert studied at the Royal Academy.
John Joubert's three string quartets unquestionably belong to his
most personal utterances. It is good to have all three in such excellent and
committed performances and very fine recording.
Joubert's discography is now slowly but regularly expanding although
there remains much that has still to be given consideration such as some of
his large-scale choral-orchestral works. He is fairly well known for the
latter but these works have received very little airing, if at all, after
their first - and in many cases - only performance. Anyway one must be
grateful for what one has now and one cannot but keep one's fingers crossed
hoping for more.
This is a beautifully played and nicely produced release.
Hubert Culot
John Joubert's three string quartets on record at last: beautifully played and nicely produced.