This five CD box has been released to mark three decades of
Austria’s Lockenhaus Festival of which Gidon Kremer was co-founder.
The summer festival may not have a didactic edge but its programming
tends to be thematic, something that these discs can in part
replicate.
The first disc therefore contrasts Strauss’s Metamorphosen
with Messiaen’s wartime Petites liturgies de la Présence
Divine, the dual import of which is clear; the Second World
War’s destruction. The Strauss is performed by Kremerata Baltica
and Simon Rattle. It’s similar in direction to his Vienna recording
but the orchestra is much lighter in weight and number so the
music emerges differently expressed. The unsettled angularities
of the writing are explored with passionate conviction, and
the playing and conducting are of the highest class. There’s
great precision of articulation in the Messiaen, and the purity
of the children’s choir is notable and even when they come under
some considerable strain their musicality wins the day.
The second disc opens with a not wholly cohesive performance
of the Franck Piano Quintet. The Hagen Quartet goes one way,
and Alexandre Rabinovitch goes another. Poor old Franck gets
lost behind. Caplet’s Conte fantastique is a spooky
affair based on Poe. It’s atmospheric, and very listenable to
once in a blue moon, but is not much helped by the blunt recorded
sound. There are a couple of lovely Poulenc songs to close this
disc sung by soprano Christine Whittlesey with pianist
Robert Levin. Disc 3 opens with a ferocious, hell for leather
Janác(ek First Quartet courtesy of frequent flyers, the Hagen
(they’re everywhere in this box). In its way this quivering,
intense performance works very well, even if I find some of
the sawing away too much, and too incursive. Stravinsky is represented
by three dances from L'histoire du soldat where
we can first hear Kremer himself. The playing is certainly big
boned. Heinz Holliger conducts the German Youth Philharmonic
Chamber Orchestra in the Concerto in D. It’s elegantly and propulsively
performed. The rest of the disc is given over to small scale
Shostakovich. The waltzes are wittily done, whilst the Two
Pieces for String Octet is an early work but performed
here with passionate strength, and heavily vibrated.
The next disc offers more perspectives on Shostakovich but this
time the focus is on the late quartets. No.14 is played by the
remarkable team of Kremer, Yuzuko Horigome (violin), Kim
Kashkashian (viola), and David Geringas (cello). Their
sonority, under the watch of Kremer, inclines more to the acidic
and tangy Taneyev Quartet than the upholstered Borodin. But
they diverge from the former wholly when it comes to structure.
The Adagio is exceptionally slow and their Allegretto
sounds rather straitened as well. Nevertheless, whatever one’s
cavils with the work’s pacing, they locate the powerful sense
of loss in that central movement. A different team takes on
No.13 — Kremer, Thomas Zehetmair, Nobuko Imai and Boris Pergamenschikow
— equally distinguished. These two all-star line ups reflect
the depth of musicianship to be heard at successive festivals.
Once again it must be Kremer who sets so sedate a tempo. The
desolation is palpable and the tonal and technical excellence
undeniable. But I find the work loses more than it gains when
stretched this laterally. Let’s just say that back in 1978 the
Taneyev took 15 minutes and the Lockenhaus team take 22.
The final disc is, rather surprisingly, in the context, given
over wholly to Erwin (Ervin) Schulhoff. A top class team, led
by Kremer, takes on the Sextet. The only real mistake is Kremer’s
decision (I assume) to take the opening Allegro too
slowly. It’s more non troppo than risoluto,
as marked. This is a good performance, though not necessarily
preferable to the augmented Kocian Quartet on Supraphon. The
Duo is played by Philip Hirschhorn and David Geringas. Ignore
the booklet timing slip — very un-ECM like — as it takes 17
or so minutes not seven. The pairing is good and the music emerges
pungently, but Pavel Hu*la and Václav Bernášek do it better
in their Schulhoff disc on, once again, Supraphon. James Tocco
proves a really effective guide to the Jazz Etudes,
on a par with Tomáš Víšek.
The recorded quality varies throughout the set. The earlier
performances were made for Austrian radio, and sound rather
brusque; ECM took over those duties later, at which point the
sound markedly improves. The booklet note is the usual ECM affair,
all very black and white, with a couple of interesting essays.
Jonathan Woolf
List of works & performers
CD1
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Metamorphosen for 23 solo Strings, AV 142 (1945) [27:47]
Kremerata Baltica/Simon Rattle
Date of Recording: 2001
Olivier MESSIAEN (1909-1992)
Petites liturgies (3) de la Présence Divine (1944) [29:03]
Dmytro Marchenko (Percussion), Khatia Buniatishvili (Celesta),
Markus Bellheim (Piano), Andrei Pushkarev (Vibraphone)
Kremerata Baltica/Shedryk Children's Choir Conductor/Roman
Kofman
Date of Recording: 2008
CD2
César FRANCK (1822-1890)
Quintet for Piano and Strings in F minor, M 7 (1878-1879) [37:57]
Lukas Hagen (Violin), Alexandre Rabinovitch (Piano),
Krista Bennion-Feeney (Violin),
Tabea Zimmermann (Viola), Clemens Hagen (Cello)
Date of Recording: 1984
André CAPLET (1878-1925)
Conte fantastique after Edgar Allan Poe's "Masque
of the Red Death" (1919) [16:17] Michael Schnitzler (Violin),
Ursula Holliger (Harp), Daniel Phillips (Violin),
Ko Iwasaki (Cello), Gérard Caussé (Viola)
Date of Recording: 1982
Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Fiançailles pour rire: no 4, Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant;
no 6, Fleurs (1939)
Christine Whittlesey (Soprano), Robert Levin (Piano)
Date of Recording: 1984
CD3
Leos JANÁCEK (1865-1928)
Quartet for Strings no 1 "Kreutzer Sonata" (1923)
[18:57]
Hagen String Quartet —Annette Bik (Violin), Lukas Hagen (Violin),
Clemens Hagen (Cello), Veronika Hagen (Viola)
Date of Recording: 1984
Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
L'histoire du soldat: Three dances (1918) [6:26]
Aloys Kontarsky (Piano), Eduard Brunner (Clarinet),
Gidon Kremer (Violin)
Date of Recording: 1981 Concerto for String Orchestra
in D major (1946)
German Youth Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra/Heinz Holliger
Date of Recording: 1984
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
’The Return of Maxim’; Waltzes (4) for Flute, Clarinet and Piano,
Op. 97c: no 3 (1936/37) [3:32]
Irena Grafenauer (Flute), Oleg Maisenberg (Piano),
Eduard Brunner (Clarinet)
Date of Recording: 1981
The Gadfly; Waltzes (4) for Flute, Clarinet and Piano, Op. 97c:
no 4, ‘Barrel Organ Waltz’ (1955) [2:32]
Eduard Brunner (Clarinet), Oleg Maisenberg (Piano),
Irena Grafenauer (Flute)
Date of Recording: 1981
Pieces (2) for String Octet, Op. 11 (1924-25) [10:38]
Lukas Hagen (Violin), Thomas Zehetmair (Violin), Annette
Bik (Violin), Daniel Phillips (Violin), Veronika Hagen (Viola),
Clemens Hagen (Cello), Hatto Beyerle (Viola), Markus
Stocker (Cello),
Date of Recording: 1984
CD4
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Quartet for Strings no 14 in F sharp major, Op. 142 (1973) [29:53]
Yuzuko Horigome (Violin), Gidon Kremer (Violin), Kim
Kashkashian (Viola),
David Geringas (Cello)
Date of Recording: 1986
Quartet for Strings no 13 in B flat minor, Op. 138 (1970) [22:22]
Gidon Kremer (Violin), Thomas Zehetmair (Violin),
Nobuko Imai (Viola), Boris Pergamenschikow (Cello)
Date of Recording: 1985
Pieces (2) for String Quartet (1931) [7:02] Gidon Kremer (Violin),
Veronika Hagen (Viola), Annette Bik (Violin), Thomas
Demenga (Cello)
Date of Recording: 1986
CD5
Ervin SCHULHOFF (1894-1942)
Sextet for 2 Violins, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos (1924) [22:55] Philippe
Hirshhorn (Violin), Gidon Kremer (Violin), Nobuko
Imai (Viola), David Geringas (Cello), Julius Berger (Cello),
Kim Kashkashian (Viola)
Date of Recording: 1986
Duo for Violin and Cello (1925) [17:23] Philippe Hirshhorn (Violin),
David Geringas (Cello)
Date of Recording: 1986
Jazz Etudes (5) for Piano (1926) [12:30] James Tocco (Piano)
Date of Recording: 1985
Recorded at the Lockenhaus Festival
ECM New Series 476 4509 [2190-94] [5 CDs: 56:51 + 60:31 + 53:55
+ 59:45 + 53:04]