RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Arnold SCHÖNBERG (1874-1951)
Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (1899)* [29:50]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1838)
String Quintet in C major, D956 (1828) [53:11]
Janine Jansen (violin), Boris Brovtsyn (violin), Maxim Rysanov (viola)*, Amihai
Grosz (viola), Torlief Thedéen (cello), Jens Peter Maintz (cello)
rec. 18-20 May 2012, Konzerthaus, Dortmund.
DECCA 478 3551 [83:12]
With its deeply rich but also highly transparent recording and superlative
performances this disc really is something special. Janine Jansen has top
billing, but the result is by no means star-soloist with add-ons. Every player
here is a leading exponent of their instrument, and there is no question of
the top line being spotlit in terms of recorded balance, or of any kind of
tussle of musical egos. There is a joy and vibrancy in the playing throughout,
and the results are more the kind you would expect from an ensemble which
has performed together for years. Jansen has worked with Maxim Rysanov before,
and I doubt any of these musicians are strangers to each other, collaborating
as they have in this case as part of the annual International Chamber Music
Festival Utrecht.
The string sextet version of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht
is inevitably something of a different animal to the more commonly recorded
string
orchestra version, and there are a few very decent versions around. Talich
Quartet on Calliope CAL5217 is not really one of these, being by no means
as atmospheric as Jansen & Co and with too much dodgy intonation. There
is a ‘classic’ recording with the Juilliard String Quartet and
Yo-Yo Ma/Walter Trampler on Sony but I have never been that keen on the wobbly
vibrato in this performance, and there are one or two soggy moments when compared
to the intensity of this Decca version. Preferable is the Brandis Quartet
on Nimbus NI5614 (see review),
which has a gripping grit to the playing which enthrals throughout, though
without quite the light and shade nuances of the Decca recording in hand.
The Raphael Ensemble on Hyperion CDA 66425 come highly recommended but I didn’t
have this to hand for comparison.
If you don’t know Verklärte Nacht, but are prepared to give
it a go for the sake of Ms Jansen, then you are in for a treat. This is programme
music based closely on a poem by Richard Dehmel which is required reading,
but it is also worth remembering that Schoenberg had the hots for his future
wife Mathilde von Zemlinsky at the time he wrote the piece, so the romantic/erotic
charge in this music is electric even before we embark on the emotional journey
taken by the poem. “Two people are walking through a bare cold wood”
is where it starts, and they end up in a “high bright night”,
having emerged from a crisis of the most desperate of confessions and the
warmest and most poetic of acceptances. The poem is given in the booklet in
German as well as French and English translation, but if you allow these musicians
to take you by the hand they will prove as fine a guide to the narrative as
any I could imagine. This is a performance filled with potent atmosphere.
When the music reaches its moments of most impassioned climax and drama you
can guess what is going on - the cello converses with the violin while sympathetic
storms are created with almost symphonic weight, but while there is agony
and despair there are no relapses into hysteria. This is a wild and disturbing
ride, but one which your imagination can follow with the greatest clarity,
and all the more powerful for that.
Emotionally wrought, might it be an idea to save Schubert’s String
Quintet in C major, D956 for another time? Perhaps not. Schoenberg’s
final “bright night” has already lifted us out of the dark cold
wood, and thus refreshed and in deiner Seele keine Last it makes for
a very fine pairing. The Quintet D956 is, like Vermeer’s View
of Delft, generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest works in its
genre. Once again, if you are coming to this music anew then prepare to be
stunned, moved, energised and royally entertained, especially by this tremendous
recording.
I’ve always had an affection for the Deutsche Grammophon recording of
the Melos Quartet with Rostropovich in this piece, and their sixteen minute
Adagio still hits the spot every time. Yes, I’m diving straight
for the heart with this piece, since if the Adagio second movement
doesn’t bring you into a different plane of existence then there’s
no point in having the rest. I have to admit liking this movement genuinely
slow and reflective, and the otherwise usually wonderful Hagen Quartet with
Heinrich Schiff, also on Deutsche Grammophon seem entirely miss the point
at a brisk 12:58. Seeing as we appear to be doing a DG roundup, another ‘twixt
and between version is the La Salle Quartet with Lynn Harrell, which at 13:15
and with an excess of jaw-clenching vibrato doesn’t do much for me at
all. Timings aren’t everything of course, but at 14:09 there is hope
for this Decca recording, and with Janine Jansen’s lovely phrasing and
a cool but expectant sustained accompaniment from the rest this works very
nicely in the magical first section. At 2:15 the tune recedes, our imaginations
keeping it alive while pizzicato grace those sustained chords. These pizzicati
can be a hazard but the effect here is good, keeping fullness of tone and
saving emphasis for crucial tensions and cadences. The drama of the central
section is kept in proportion to the rest, maintaining that transparency of
sound I appreciate so much in the Schoenberg, while also not bumping the music
into too high a gear with regard to the tempo. This is turbulence, but those
memories of regret are still present. The transition at around eight minutes
is breathtaking, taking us, jaw already on the floor and tear ducts barely
contained, into Schubert’s tease - turning our faces to greet the sky
and allowing our skin to be warmed by the sun. When we look back down we notice
sparkling ripples on the gently undulating water, and understanding begins
to dawn through that rawness of grief - still present and never to be forgotten,
but bittersweet rather than an all-consuming darkness. Yes, there’s
all this and more to be found in this performance.
Just to reassure everyone, the first movement also has it all, from lyricism
and wit to the gripping drama nobody expected from a piece in C major. This
Allegro ma non troppo is the longest of the work, and stands as a masterpiece
in its own right - elevated by the performance here to something rich and
remarkable, with new things to discover every time you hear it. The third
movement is another life-enhancing experience, bracingly physical at the opening
Scherzo and swelling with enigmatic, unrequited emotions at the Andante
sostenuto of the Trio. These musicians get everything right, from
intonation and weight of balance in the harmonies to communication of Schubert’s
heightened emotional sensitivities. The final Allegretto is a skipping
dance, but not taken superficially in this performance. Little dissonances
and Gottschalk-like moments of jazzy blueness are kicked out with relish.
None of the movements here are in any way disposable, and this performance
has raised my appreciation for this piece in its entirety like no other.
Booklet notes are by Dutch broadcaster Paul Witteman and have a nicely personal
touch. Just pipped by Maria João Pires on DG,
the 83+ minutes duration of this Decca disc make it a very good money/music
ratio value prospect. Even with such heavenly lengths this is the kind of
performance you sort of wish would go on forever, and I can guarantee it will
be one of my 2013 Recordings of the Year.
Dominy Clements
Straight onto the 2013 Recordings of the Year list.
Masterwork Index: Schubert
string quintet
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