Max Bruch came from the generation after Schumann and Mendelssohn - who
were probably the strongest influences on him. He composed a small number of
chamber works, which mostly come from the very beginning and end of his
career. The bulk of his compositional effort focused on orchestral and
choral works. He was a precocious child composer and his Septet (1849) was
written when he was eleven whilst an early string quartet was the product of
his fifteenth year. The piano trio, his Op. 5 (c. 1857) and the two numbered
string quartets, Ops. 9 (1859) and 10 (1860) respectively, were the only
works for chamber ensemble published in his lifetime - apart from the two
sets of short pieces Opp. 70 and 83. His piano quintet dates from 1886 but
the remaining extant works - two string quintets and a string octet that is
derived from one of them - appear to have been written as late as
1918/20.
I first made the acquaintance of the two numbered quartets on a Dynamic LP
made in 1983 by the Roumanian Academica Quartet - the premiere recording in
fact, which is still available on CD and to download. These players were not
exactly household name artists and they don't seem to have done much since.
When the CD appeared, Nick Barnard was pretty complimentary about the
performances
(
review) although other reviews noted that marked dynamics and
tempi were occasionally ignored. The music didn't originally make a big
impression on me so it was interesting to listen to the LP performances
again to compare directly with the new CD by the German Diogenes
Quartet.
The new CD scores in providing us with the first opportunity to hear
Bruch's earliest quartet, referred to above. Thought lost, this score turned
up in the archives of the Mozart-Stiftung in Frankfurt as recently as
January 2013. Bruch had used this work to apply for the coveted scholarship
of this foundation - successfully, for the three members of the jury
unanimously chose the precocious work as the best entry. Louis Spohr, in
particular, was deeply moved by the work and prophesied a brilliant career
for the composer.
The work is certainly precociously well-crafted - with clear influences of
Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn but, as the accompanying
(rather laboriously translated) booklet states: "that Bruch . in later years
was not necessarily to rank among the revolutionaries of musical history is
already clear from this fresh and straightforward youthful work". Three of
the movements have a definite "Sturm und Drang" feeling about them and the
young Bruch is, perhaps not surprisingly, anything but original. I can't
help thinking that the precocity of Mendelssohn was on a different level of
inspiration; listen, if you can, to the wonderful early E Flat quartet he
also composed at the age of fourteen. Bruch would re-use the theme of the
second movement
Adagio in his Op. 9 quartet - although the tune is
not memorable enough for that to be obvious. The fourth movement
Presto, on the other hand, is more Mendelssohnian and it does have
a memorable theme - albeit one that is quickly abandoned for a slower second
subject, although it comes back several times, finally developing into a
Fugato section.
The numbered quartets date from seven or eight years later and are
similarly well-crafted. In his review Nick Barnard observed that: "the tunes
here are good but lack the little hook of greatness that finds you humming
them on the morning bus". I have to concur with this - these works do not
strike me as significant advances over the early quartet and it is easy to
see why Bruch is widely regarded as falling only within the second rank of
composers.
Switching between the two recordings the differences are often subtle but
they are noticeable. Op. 9, for example, has a fairly arresting opening but
it soon lapses into passage work that fails to engage in the Diogenes
performance. The Academica's opening just makes more sense and there is more
rise and fall in the dynamics. Their slow movement is more atmospheric and
the busy third movement sounds less hurried. Think of Dvorak's (second)
Piano Quintet Op. 81 and you will recall that the third movement would make
quite a good conclusion to the work; the finale is almost a bonus. The same
can be said of both of Bruch's Opp. 9 and 10 quartets: in each case the last
movement can feel tacked on and not part of what has gone before - although
I felt this was rather less noticeable with the Academica's performance.
Also, the viola tune in the hymn-like second subject of the last movement of
Op. 10 emerges more cleanly in the earlier recording.
Comparative timings for the performances are not actually that different
(the Academica take 24:50 for Op. 9 and 28:25 for Op. 10) but, in spite of
the faster timing for Op. 9, the Academica still sound slightly more relaxed
and they also achieve better contrast between episodes - so the music gains
in interest and hangs together better. The leader uses a faster vibrato and
that also helps. Critically, the music is given a chance to breathe - so it
makes more sense here and is more memorable as a result.
The playing of the Diogenes Quartet is very competent - with very
occasional intonation lapses but nothing serious. I could not warm to their
sometimes choppy and hard-driven style. This was especially true of the
third and fourth movements of the early quartet and in the third movements
of both of the more mature quartets where greater delicacy and transparency
were needed. An acceptable but comparatively uncongenial recording doesn't
help; a bit tubby and reverberant with a slightly artificial edge. The
Academica Quartet benefit from a slightly warmer although less reverberant
acoustic and they are recorded at a slightly lower level. After the resinous
adagio start to the Diogenes' performance of the early quartet I had
the strong impression that the recording's editor had overused the volume
control - perhaps to compensate for a lack of observance of dynamics. As a
result of the sudden aggressive increase in sound I had to turn the volume
down not once but twice.
Knowing just how much effort is involved in researching, learning, playing
and recording neglected music I hate to be negative but I found the new CD
comparatively unattractive. Neglected music is not always passed over for a
good reason but it can often require special advocacy if it is to be
resurrected and it doesn't quite get it here.
In summary, if you want the mature works, the Dynamic recordings and
performances definitely have the edge on this Brilliant Classics offering -
although note that the Mannheim Quartet on CPO received excellent reviews
for their accounts and it may still be possible to find these. At any rate I
enjoyed hearing the Academia Quartet's performances again. They are/were a
fine quartet and they made a good case for what remains understandably
neglected music. By comparison the Diogenes, although quite similar in many
respects, sometimes left me feeling dissatisfied. They do not quite cut the
mustard and, so far as I am concerned, their performances are for
completists only.
Bob Stevenson
