Emanuel Aloys FÖRSTER (1748-1823)
String Quartet in C, op.21 no.1 (1802-03) [23:56]
String Quartet in D minor, op.21 no.2 (1802-03) [24:52]
String Quartet in A, op.21 no.3 (1802-03) [24:07]
rec. Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, 31 March - 4 April 2011.
HUNGAROTON HCD32705 [73:14]
Franz KROMMER (1759-1831)
String Quartet in C, op.7 no.1 (1797) [22:32]
String Quartet in E minor, op.7 no.2 (1797) [24:17]
String Quartet in A, op.7 no.3 (1797) [22:49]
rec. Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, 11-13 January 2008.
HUNGAROTON HCD32623 [69:42]
Joseph WÖLFL (1773-1812)
String Quartet in C, op.4 no.1 (1798) [23:37]
String Quartet in F, op.4 no.2 (1798) [24:44]
String Quartet in C minor, op.4 no.3 (1798) [26:21]
rec. Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, 11-13 January 2008.
HUNGAROTON HCD32580 [74:42]
Johann Georg ALBRECHTSBERGER (1736-1809)
String Quartet in C, op.7 no.4 (c.1781-83) [19:26]
String Quartet in G minor, op.7 no.5 (c.1781-83) [18:57]
String Quartet in E flat, op.7 no.6 (c.1781-83) [26:12]
rec. Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, 11-14 January 2007.
HUNGAROTON HCD32495 [64:35]
Nikolaus ZMESKÁLL (1759-1833)
String Quartet no.15 in G minor [35:40]
String Quartet no.14 in D [36:14]
rec. Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, 2-4 October 2003.
HUNGAROTON HCD32332 [71:54]
These five CDs, all featuring premiere recordings and released
within the last decade by Hungaroton, constitute the core of the
Hungarian Authentic Quartet's discography. They serve as
resounding testimony to the brilliance and value of period-instrument
performance of music from the Classical era.
The Authentic Quartet (AQ) - this name also used in Hungarian
contexts - was founded in 2002 by first violinist Zsolt Kalló.
The three other founding members, Balázs Bozzai, Gábor
Rác and Csilla Vályi, are ever-presents throughout
this series, lending their recordings an impregnable air of authority.
Whilst their repertory naturally centres on Haydn and Mozart,
it also reaches out to these latter's more neglected contemporaries,
in whose lives the twin towers of 18th-century Austrian music
were such influential presences one way or another - as will become
apparent below.
Austrian Emanuel Förster (sometimes 'Foerster')
- no relation to the later and better-known Czech composer Josef
Bohuslav Foerster (or 'Förster') - counted
Mozart and Haydn among his friends, and the generation-younger
Beethoven among his acquaintances. He wrote around fifty string
quartets, including the six of op.21. The first three of those
heard on this recording, published 1802-03, are unsurprisingly
reminiscent of late Haydn and early Beethoven - and no poor cousins
either.
Fellow Austrian Johann Albrechtsberger wrote many works for string
quartet too, but in his case almost all were as 'fugues'
or 'sonatas'. Some of these have been recorded in
recent times: the AQ themselves followed up the present CD with
another Hungaroton release offering Albrechtsberger's six
short, two-movement, fugue-based quartets published as op.16.
They are interestingly paired with the even briefer Six Fugues
a 4 by Gregor Werner, the Austrian Baroque composer replaced in
later life at the Esterházy court at Eisenstadt by Haydn.
In fact, the three quartets of op.7 are the only ones Albrechtsberger
wrote in conventional form. He is best known today for his role
in the education of Beethoven on the recommendation of Haydn,
who, like many, regarded him as the finest teacher of composition
to be had. Yet as a composer Albrechtsberger has been routinely
dismissed as a lightweight throughout the twentieth century. This
view likely arises from a much-repeated but quite possibly apocryphal
description by Beethoven of his teacher as a "musical pedant".
Tutoring Beethoven in the 1790s, Albrechtsberger was no headstrong
young man like his pupil, but a conservative, expert theorist.
By comparison with Beethoven, no doubt his quartets seem rather
academic, but in their own terms they are works of supreme elegance
that would please non-specialist audiences as much today as they
would have more than two centuries ago. The AQ's committed,
idiomatic advocacy at least gives them a fair chance to be heard.
Though a Czech, Franz Krommer, born František Kramář,
spent most of his life in Vienna where he established a towering
international reputation as a composer. He wrote string quartets
throughout his long life and the total of 76 listed by Karel Padrta
in his recent thematic catalogue of the composer's works
is virtually identical to Haydn's. Krommer was born when
Mozart was three, though he outlived him by several decades; but
as his op.7 quartets are (for him) relatively early works - his
op.1 quartets were published four years earlier in 1793 - it comes
as no surprise to find them reminiscent of his now much more famous
contemporary's. Indeed, Krommer is said to have taught
himself music theory as a boy through a study of the works of
Mozart and Haydn. Published as Trois Quatuors Concertans, these
are typically fine works of art and craft. Krommer's minor-key
quartets were especially expressive, the E minor piece here being
the literal and figurative focus of an emotionally generous programme.
Born in Hungarian Slovakia, Nikolaus Zmeskall - sometimes written
with one 'l' and/or with an 'á'
in his surname - was an exact contemporary of Krommer and a one-time
pupil of Mozart. As a composer he barely registers nowadays, but
many will instantly recognise his name as that of one of Beethoven's
favourite patrons, dedicatee of the latter's op.95 String
Quartet and - possibly, or perhaps not - as the titular protagonist
of twentieth-century author Carl von Pidoll's music novel
bearing the title (among others) 'Eroica - Nikolaus Zmeskall
von Domanovetz's Reminiscences of Beethoven'.
By comparison with the other works considered here, Zmeskall's
quartets are Romantically epic in proportion, both running to
well beyond half an hour. They have a much more Beethovenian feel
to them, with more spacious architecture, greater introspection
and no mean degree of part-writing, all the more impressive for
the fact that Zmeskall was effectively an amateur composer, his
proper job being that of a high-ranking civil servant in the Hungarian
court. As these are highly cultivated works in what was at the
time the only monograph in existence of Zmeskall's music;
and given the composer's importance to Beethoven, this
is surely a must-have recording. They are played once again with
great poise and feeling on the part of the AQ.
Last year, as it happens, the Slovakian label Pavlík Records
brought out Zmeskall's complete extant works - 15 string
quartets and a harpsichord rondo - in a 3 CD/DVD-A boxed set,
performed by the newly formed Zmeskall Quartet (PA007429). The
rest of Zmeskall's quartets, it should be said, are of
a different kind: all shorter than fifteen minutes - many less
than eight - and cast in only two contrasting movements. Remarkable
miniatures they are nonetheless, sometimes reminiscent of Boccherini.
They come well performed by the eponymous ensemble and, asinine
musician-inhalations aside, in high-quality audio. Bought direct
from the label they can be had reasonably cheaply - definitely
worth consideration by anyone who has enjoyed the AQ on Hungaroton.
Austrian Joseph Wölfl (or 'Woelfl') was born
latest of the five composers under review. An early death robbed
him of the chance to establish himself as a progressive. On the
other hand, as a former pupil of both Leopold Mozart and Michael
Haydn, he was, it is fair to say, a master craftsman with a good
deal of expressive imagination, as these three of his twelve string
quartets show. The lovely middle movement of the C major, as a
case in point, would grace any composer's body of works.
Wölfl was once a highly popular, much-praised composer, but
his reputation waned quickly after his death. In recent years
there have been signs of a revival, with recordings of important
works like the piano concertos, symphonies, piano sonatas and
string quartets. These have emanated from Harmonia Mundi, CPO,
Caro Mitis/Essential Classics and others. There’s also been
the recent publication of a thematic catalogue of works by the
Austrian pianist Margit Haider-Dechant. The present disc must
be seen as a centrepiece of any revival. These are lustrous performances
by the AQ, bristling with natural warmth, style and good humour.
They do full credit to Wölfl's immensely attractive
Mozart-meets-Schubert writing.
Indeed, whether more Romantically or Classically engaged, the
AQ perform always with great acuity, communicative conviction
and technical accuracy. They have made every one of these recordings
memorable and worthy of the attention of all fans of the string
quartet genre. No one wary of the 'period instrument'
label should hesitate either. The AQ's have particularly
rounded tones that complement the slightly lowered concert pitch
(A430).
Hungaroton's sound quality in every instance is practically
immaculate. Quartet players have an innate ability to inhale with
extravagance; none more so than certain illustrious compatriots
of the AQ. Hungaroton's engineers have managed to place
microphones so that the players' breathing here is restricted
for pick-up purposes to the odd quick sniff and thus does not
leech into the fabric of the music. The accompanying booklets
are of more variable quality, translations into English (by non-natives)
sometimes alighting on the wrong register ("he got acquainted
with the 22-year-old Beethoven at Prince Karl Lichnowsky's
place"!) and even flirting with incoherence on occasion.
This is not universally the case - the Förster booklet, for
example, is first-rate.
Finally, a review of the AQ's most recent release, demonstrating
the group's ability to reach with ease well beyond its
core repertory, can be found here.
Byzantion
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