Opera on DVD: Turn of the Screw

Britten, The Turn of the Screw, H. Field, R. Greager, Schwetzinger Festspiele, S. Bedford (released May 20, 2003) Arthaus Musik 100 198

While Peter Grimes and Billy Budd are the grandest operas in the Britten works list, widely seen as his masterpieces, The Turn of the Screw stands as his greatest achievement in the genre of chamber opera. As a work of live theater it can be devastating, as in productions reviewed here from Lorin Maazel's Châteauville Foundation and the Mariinsky Theater. This is the first DVD of the opera to come under review, although there are several others available beside it (more to come about that). Steuart Bedford, former director of the Aldeburgh Festival, conducted this fine production at the Schwetzinger Festpiele in Stuttgart, in 1990. The cast can hardly be called stars, but they are all well suited to the roles and sing with poise and (mostly) native British pronunciation. Helen Field is a slender, wild-eyed Governess, with an edgy, nervous vibrato that reinforces the character's hysterical paranoia. Menai Davies is a solid, matronly Mrs. Grose, and Phyllis Cannan an intensely insistent Miss Jessel.

Richard Greager's Quint loses some of his menace as he becomes more visible but sings with power and clarity. (Mark Padmore's Quint, heard on a recent DVD in the Richard Hickox-led City of London Sinfonia series, is superior.) Director Michael Hampe made the interesting choice to have Miss Jessel and Quint sing from distances in their earliest scenes, behind doors and scrims, high above the stage on a balcony. The otherworldliness is enhanced by some sort of amplification of only those singers throughout, an ingenious idea that nevertheless plays havoc with the balance between voices. The only slightly odd casting choice was Machiko Obata's Flora, standing out more by comparison to the creepy, introspective Miles of treble Sam Linay. Bedford weaves a tight accompaniment from the fifteen players of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in the pit, an envelope of sound that is scaled to the singers and terrifying in its delicacy of color.

108'

Ionarts at Large: Notes from the ARD International Music Competition (Day 11)

While the violas celebrate (or cry), now that they’ve got their contest all done with, won their merits, or got their thanks-for-trying certificates, the string quartets come into even greater focus, stealing the limelight off the poor bassoons. The string quartet semi-finals were a two-concert, six-hour music marathon between 11AM until about 8PM. Mozart for everyone, as well as Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade and the ARD Competition commissioned piece by Rodion Shchedrin: Lyric Scenes for String Quartet.

There’s a potential bright side to hearing a work like Shchedrin’s six times in short succession: one of the interpreters may, and if only accidentally, hit upon worthy music in it. Not unlike Sergey Malov did with Atar Arad’s Tikvah (the Britten-Lachrymae aspect of which I had completely missed). When just the notes are played, the admirably short Shchedrin piece is a happier affair than Tikvah. Unfortunately, six different attempts at the music seemed to suggest that more than the notes simply wasn’t there. It remained a vaguely pensive, casual, and perfectly harmless work. Which, admittedly, is more than what can be said about most such commissioned pieces.

The Swiss-German Amaryllis Quartett was the first to go at it, and they extracted no sense from it, nor – like all but two quartets – did they observe the dynamic markings very carefully. Quadruple- and triple-pianissimos were less than hushed, pianissimo passages – plucked and bowed alike – were no softer than mezzopiano or mezzoforte. The work, easy to read, has its challenges for the players, but even with the artificial contrasts of fff and ppp­ it’s a bit on the monotonous side. But there was Mozart, too – the E-flat Quartet K428. A breathy opening, the first violin not always easy on the ears, and the same calm approach for the two first movements. Their transparency and separation of voices was too much and bordered on thinness – with a pianist I’d speak of a “Dresden China” approach to the music. An impression that didn’t have to be much revised after the more tempestuous (and mistake prone) last movement. A neat and nippy Italian Serenade brought their 2008 ARD competition experience to a close.

If the Amaryllis’ Wolf was “neat”, Heaves & Pomerray (b.k.a. Heath Quartet) made it a barnstorming, hootin’ piece of fun-house music that sounded more like born out of the Le Jazz period in the 1920s, not written in 1887 alongside Strauss’ dour Violin Sonata, Rheinberger’s marvelous but utterly conventional op.149 Suite for organ, violin, and cello, or Dvořák’s Second Piano Quintet. The Wild West was swinging a-heavily in this, and it was good raucous fun: on its own merits deserving of a finale berth as far as I’m concerned, although that was sadly and curiously not to be.

Admittedly, their Mozart K464 (A-major) wasn't so deserving: Neither of extraordinary delicacy nor with any other interpretative angle that defined the performance, this was less than inspired. At least the third movement wasn’t too garrulous – and those bouncing, “drumming” accompanying lines (largely with the cello, but also traded to the viola, then the second violin, before returning to the cello) simply are one of the great moments in Mozart. Out of the Shchedrin, the Brits could make little more sense than the Amaryllis, though they played it with greater precision..

Notes from the ARD Intl. Music Competition: Day 2: Viola Competition, Round 1 (2) (September 2) Day 3: Viola Competition, Round 1 (3) (September 3) Day 4: Viola Competition, Round 1 (4) (September 4) Day 5: String Quartet Competition, Round 1 (1) (September 5) Day 6: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (2) (September 6) Day 7: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (3) (September 7) Day 8: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (1) and Viola, Semi-Finals (September 8) Day 9: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (2) (September 9) Day 10: Viola, Final (September 10) Day 11: String Quartet, Semi-Finals (September 11) Day 12: Clarinet, Final (September 12) Days 13 & 14: String Quartet & Bassoon Finals (September 13 & 14)

The A­fiara Quartet squeaked into finale just so, but the first price for most fashionable appearance they’d have locked up already, if there was such a category. Their Wolf was now more modern, pre-Bergian almost, and Shchedrin still didn’t reveal a secret masterpiece. They offered a more compact, straight-faced sound here as well as in the Mozart, which paid dividends in K428. The revealing notes I scribbled down during their performance: “1^st movement: OK. 2^nd movement: faultless, unexciting. 3^rd movement: OK. Finale: not a day for Mozart, today.”

Except for the Heath’s Wolf, none of the first batch's performances were top flight, and some of it less than first class, too. Happily things improved considerably when the afternoon session of string quartets got under way at about 5PM. The Gémeaux Quartett opened with Mozart’s “Hoffmeister” Quartet K499 (now that’s Hoffmeister, I can believe in). Also very stylish, these four German/Swiss players made their Mozart an athletic, even Olympian sport. The second violin (Sylvia Zucker) could have made more out of the music she was dealt in the opening movement, rather than content herself with little more than harmonic background chirping. Playing Mozart like late Beethoven and succeeding in showing the music from its inherently enjoyable side is maybe too difficult a task for most quartets.

Better a bold intonation issue, than a timid intonation issue, I say… and that might have been the Gémeaux’ motto, too, in the (bold indeed) second movement. Dancing in front of her colleagues like the pied piper in ballerina slippers, the chipper-playing first violin Anne Schoenholtz made the others follow her happily. The tight-enough ensemble and the discipline worked reasonably well in this firm, lean, occasionally muscular, occasionally mechanical performance. A steely Mozart never to love, but one to make an impression with.

Shchedrin was better from the rest only in that the voices were more finely attuned to each other, that first violin dared to make a might sound when called for, and because they nailed the very last phrase: one half bar of 32^nd notes with a decaying sound from mp to ppp played sul ponticello. Small victories. The Italian Serenade, a work that fortunately refused to get old upon hearing so many times, sounded fresh – in both meanings of the word: I loved the inflections and slides that gave this Wolf something between a Viennese wine-induced slur and a strong air of a North-Texan, chicle chewing saloon girl eying her potential ‘visitors’. (If La Fanciulla del West sounded half as authentically western, it might actually be a fine opera.) The Gémeaux didn’t go down that road all the way (unlike the Heath), though. They still observed great detail, flirting with precision for its own sake and thereby reigning some of the ‘total-flair’ aspect back in. Not necessarily a bad decision, but not a necessary one, either.

Apollon Musagete had their great and slightly lesser moments in this contest already. Now, amid the disappointing level of Mozart playing in this semi-finale, their “Dissonance” Quartet K465 (C-major) was a relative triumph. K465 is an astounding work not only for the premonitions-of-Webern opening, but its genial nature throughout. And lo-and-behold, the four Poles were the first to present Mozart that sounded genial, too. Small mistakes didn’t matter – they were negligible in light of the music of which they were part. After four moonlit Mozartean quartet-scapes, finally some sunshine! I suspect the success was due to a quartet actually sitting down for some music-making, instead of string-quartet-competition-playing. Velvet gloves in the second movement and nearly as amiable final movements only underscored how dissatisfying all the previous Mozart – including the better-than-the-rest’s Gémeaux’ – had been.

They didn’t stop here, either: Shchedrin finally had four players who at least tried to dutifully observe the dynamic markings, and first violinist Pawel Zalejski played those 32^nd note runs as if they had been etched into metal plates. Not that that revealed sudden greatness, but at least it made the act of reading along more satisfying. Then Hugo Wolf’s Serenade became a new piece of music, again. Instead of the anachronistic Saloon & Blues-interpretation, they gave us the Vienna Coffee-house version. Vienna is, after all, an eastern European city – and Apollon Musagetes made that plenty clear. The earnestness with which second violinist Bartosz Zachlod had fun was downright adorable. The performance made old gentlemen in the audience stomp their feet and howl (! - presumably because it was Hugo Wolf) with excitement. Just like the Gémeaux, unequivocal candidates for the finale in which they will appear on September 13^th.

Last for the day was again the Verus String Quartet who opted for sandwiching their Mozart between Wolf and Shchedrin. Despite my admiration for their playing so far, I imagined the possibility of these four young Japanese musicians driving Wolf's Serenade against the wall in a buttoned-up reading. Turns out that they played it more or less as I feared, but that the result didn’t sound like anything I might have been afraid of. Sure it was a rather unsmiling, un-infectious Serenade, and it was played straight faced, as absolute music. But it was beautiful absolute music now, with a nocturnal air about it.

Shchedrin’s Lyric Scenes (all scenes, no story), had more nice touches than all but the Polish performances, too. Not as accurate as the latter, but again played as absolute music which might have been as good a plan as any, rather than searching for extra-musical meaning not present. Their excellent sound raised the question here, as well as in any of their other performances: What instruments does this youngest of the participating quartets play on?

Without wanting to take away from their due credit for playing so well, their instruments must be well above average for such a consistent, uncommonly beautiful sound. A sound they put to very fine use in their Mozart K387 “Spring”. This was polished without that driven zeal or the all-too-skimpy sound already heard, displaying an exactness without that heightened, even aggressive, pressure with which Mozart had been treated so far. There may not have been anything overtly “Mozartesque” about the Verus' reading (which also means an absence of clichés), nor did they chose the casual style of the Apollon Musagetes, but there was plenty of their civilized, mature sound and groomed playing that simply has its own, very rewarding merits. Although this isn’t at all my aesthetic credo, hearing this I had to admit: Beauty is – sometimes – an end in itself. How good to be hearing them in Beethoven and Bartók again, so soon.

Recommended recordings of the string quartets played in the semi final:

Mozart, Quartet No.18, K464 - "Drum", Quatuor Mosaïques Mozart, Quartet No.19, K465 - "Dissonance", Klenke Quartet

Mozart, Quartet No.20, K499 - "Hoffmeister", Klenke Quartett Mozart, Quartet No.16, K428, Quatuor Mosaïques

Mozart, Quartet No.14, K387 - "Spring", Quatuor Mosaïques Wolf et al., Italian Serenade, Takács Quartet (ArkivCD)

In Memoriam

Every year on the anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, I have been suggesting that readers make a contribution to the Memorial for the Pentagon victims. Thanks to anyone who did that: the memorial was dedicated today, on the seventh anniversary.

On that beautiful, warm day the school where I teach suspended classes shortly after noon and brought the students together for a Mass. In the terrible silence of the auditorium, with the entire student body praying together, the roar of military jets in the skies above Washington was the only sound. I will carry to my grave the memory of having to explain to boys, whose parents work at the Capitol, the White House, the Pentagon, what was happening. Mrs. Ionarts, at that point mid-pregnancy with Master Ionarts, locked herself in my office so that her crying would not further upset the students. News of a fourth plane, headed to the U.S. Capitol, not far from our house, had just arrived (that plane ultimately crashed in Pennsylvania, in a field I very much want to visit, to pay my respects).

We learned later about some of the people who were killed in the attack on the Pentagon. Bernard Brown was an 11-year-old student from Leckie Elementary on a National Geographic trip to California. Asia Cottom, also age 11 but from Bertie Backus Middle School (just down the street from my school), was on the same trip. In all, 184 people lost their lives that morning at the Pentagon.

REQUIESCANT IN PACE. WE WILL NOT FORGET YOU.

Pentagon employees and airplane passengers who died
in the attack on the Pentagon, September 11, 2001

Take Score, Add Turntables

A Classical Makeover in Baltimore
Washington Post, September 11, 2008

Mobtown Modern
Contemporary Museum (Baltimore, Md.)

Erik Spangler, pastlife laptops and attic instruments (2004)
David Lang, The Anvil Chorus (1994)
Julia Wolfe, Lick (1994)
Anna Clyne, paint box (2006)
Jacob ter Veldhuis, Grab It! (1999)

David Lang, The Anvil Chorus, played by Brian Archinal

Ionarts at Large: Notes from the ARD International Music Competition (Day 10)

On day ten of the ARD competition I took a vacation of sorts – by skipping the four bassoon candidates who played in the second round’s morning recital. But at 4PM it was time to hear at least two clarinetists at the Prinzregententheater where I duly listened to the two 24-year old Frenchmen Rémi Delangle and Régis Vincent in the Mozart concerto KV 622. Playing with great (perhaps too great) effort and gusto was again the Munich Chamber Orchestra (MKO). Delangle stood out for his soft, un-intrusive, subtle, rather than virtuosic tone – and the position he took among the instruments. With him, the concerto sounded like a Concerto Grosso with challenging clarinet part. A gracious wit and genuinely friendly disposition shone through his playing, befitting the work and suggesting that he’d not only make a fine chamber music player, but that he already looks well beyond the notes when playing Mozart. If softness and his very natural piano and pianissimo worked well enough in the opening Allegro, imagine how well it befit the Adagio. In the fast movement was bothered by too much ‘wet hiss’ that almost no clarinetist can avoid, others might have been bothered by what I thought subtlety, calling it “emaciated”, instead.

Régis Vincent was much more a soloist than his countryman, and had about the same amount of buzzing – except that this afflicted his slow movement as well. Greater comparison might have helped to consider the achievement of these two players, but in isolation it is difficult to believe that there were not better candidates to come. I, in any case, had to bike over to the Herkulessaal at the Residence (renovated with new seats and floors) for the Violists’ competition, who were already holding their finals.

Notes from the ARD Intl. Music Competition: Day 2: Viola Competition, Round 1 (2) (September 2) Day 3: Viola Competition, Round 1 (3) (September 3) Day 4: Viola Competition, Round 1 (4) (September 4) Day 5: String Quartet Competition, Round 1 (1) (September 5) Day 6: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (2) (September 6) Day 7: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (3) (September 7) Day 8: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (1) and Viola, Semi-Finals (September 8) Day 9: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (2) (September 9) Day 10: Viola, Final (September 10) Day 11: String Quartet, Semi-Finals (September 11) Day 12: Clarinet, Final (September 12) Days 13 & 14: String Quartet & Bassoon Finals (September 13 & 14)

Four candidates made it into the viola final – all in different ways: After outstanding performances in rounds one and two, Wen Xiao Zheng was a favorite early on – but he didn’t have a particularly good day at the semi-final, missing the point of the required, commissioned work, Tikvah, by a mile. Teng Li advanced through stealthy excellence: Her playing as good as introverted, and about as plain as she herself. Lilli Maijala, her playing very personable but not outclassing the others, made it to the last round, not the least because a final with three candidates would have been too sparsely populated. Only the Russian Sergey Malov had consistently impressed in every preceding round. Others, like the Norwegian Ida Bryhn never made it past round two, despite bracing performances. Or they were being handed advancements on account of reputation more than merit, like the recent Primrose Competition winner Dimitri Murrath.

In keeping with the unpredictability, Sergey Malov took his off-day during the final. The Bartók concerto, which I had just heard in Salzburg with the Cleveland Orchestra and Kim Kashkashian, isn’t a piece that the soloist can pull off on his own, if the orchestra doesn’t participate, to begin with. And the Bavarian Radio’s own and principal orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – in principle one of Germany’s four best – didn’t. Stuffed with the second and third guard of backup players and with a young, dutiful conductor standing in front of—but not leading—them, they played listlessly through the work. Finding his grove only in the fiery, faster parts was too little for Malov to suggest that the Bartók was merely unsuccessful because of the lack of support.

Teng Li, who played the same work as the last candidate, did at least that: she massaged the lyricism out of the music and offered a greater sense of control, if less ferocity. And it paid off with her being awarded the Third Prize of the ARD Competition. Between the two came Wen Xiao Zheng and Lilli Maijala. Maijala chose Paul Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher”, a rare case of “Hindemithean prettiness”. At least for the first two movements. Using only lower strings and winds, it made the solo viola look downright dainty. And of course sound relatively bright before that curtain of dark strings, woodwinds, and brass. The Finn, in a long, dashing currant-colored dress, lolled on that carpet to great advantage – but it couldn’t quite mask the fact that her instrument’s tone simply isn’t beautiful and her precision not quite that of her colleagues at this stage. The conductor conducting the soloist in the harp-accompanied cadenza of the second movement was a bizarre act to watch… perhaps he was just instinctively moving along with the music.

Wen Xiao Zheng opted for the Schnittke concerto dedicated to Yuri Bashmet – and he was back! The concerto is cacophony unleashed – and cacophony reigned in, again. Among Schnittke's last pre-stroke works, it is already a little alienated from his earlier style; dense and dark for the better parts of the first and second movements. It seems rather less accessible than some of the violin concertos or the string quartet and viola sonata heard at this contest, coming closer in style to his cello concertos. But come the the Allegro molto, an extraordinarily affable and thankful lyrical passage of bitter-sweet beauty sets in in. This is cut off, for the time being, by a violent, insane percussive outbreak (finally the BRSO sounds like it is having some fun) and string mayhem. The concluding Largo, too, is Schnittke-like in its unpredictability and constant changes of mood. A Bach-referencing cadenza is followed by the beginnings’ cacophony – purposely covering the soloist’s playing amid the frenzy – only to die down again and work its way to the (far away) end in gently waving figures. A performance undoubtedly deserving of the Second Prize of the 2008 ARD Competition – and handing this student of the Munich Conservatory the audience prize, too.

Recommended recordings of the concertos played in this round:

Bartók, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Kim Kashkashian / Netherlands RChO / Eötvös

Schnittke, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Bashmet / USSR MCSSO / Rozhdestvensky

Hindemith, Der Schwandendreher, Tabea Zimmermann / Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / David Shallon

Ionarts at Large: Notes from the ARD International Music Competition (Day 9)

Day nine of the ARD International Music Competition saw the conclusion of the second round of string quartets in two blocks of concerts, featuring five groups, and eight different works. The Brodowski Quartet (UK/Germany) made the start with Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in f-minor op.80. A tad hectic in the opining and surprisingly fast in the first movement, it was right on the edge between rushed and invigorating; possibly odd, maybe exciting. Good ideas about performance details were noticeable, as were small infelicities. Innovative accents and again a speed-demon approach cast the second movement in a new light, too. Instinctively the discrepancy to one’s own expectations might have this a bad thing, but the experience of a new sound is actually quite bracing. Nicely understated the slow movement, the fourth movement was: fast--always, skilled--very much, but occasionally imprecise. Very interesting and very entertaining in its own way, but maybe not the stuff that will get you advanced in a competition.

I would have advanced them anyway, just because their choice of Schnittke’s Quartet No.3 was so inspired and their performance impassioned. The opening of that work is as effective as any, drawing the inclined listener into its world of sounds at once. True to his polystylistic approach, Schnittke’s work seems to shift shapes and change colors at all times, covering in spirit (and sometimes quotation), the musical world from Bach via Beethoven to Ligeti. And yet there is nothing incoherent or quilt-like about the work: everything Schnittke does is well integrated into the quartet’s fabric. His subversive shifts from harmonically conventional invented and real quotations are ever scrumptious.

While being engrossed by a faultless performance of a slightly less familiar work (this being the first time I heard this Schnittke quartet in concert), it is difficult to say how much admiration belongs to just the performance aspects, how much to the choice of work, and how much to the composition itself. Fortunately, only the jury has to concern itself with that. (I am hoping that Schnittke’s anti-modernist style is not still considered “polito-musicologically incorrect” and discriminated against.) The audience meanwhile can just sit back, silently tap along, and smile broadly.

Notes from the ARD Intl. Music Competition: Day 2: Viola Competition, Round 1 (2) (September 2) Day 3: Viola Competition, Round 1 (3) (September 3) Day 4: Viola Competition, Round 1 (4) (September 4) Day 5: String Quartet Competition, Round 1 (1) (September 5) Day 6: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (2) (September 6) Day 7: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (3) (September 7) Day 8: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (1) and Viola, Semi-Finals (September 8) Day 9: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (2) (September 9) Day 10: Viola, Final (September 10) Day 11: String Quartet, Semi-Finals (September 11) Day 12: Clarinet, Final (September 12) Days 13 & 14: String Quartet & Bassoon Finals (September 13 & 14)

The Galatea Quartet opened with Ligeti’s String Quartet No.1, “Métamorphoses nocturnes”. The humor and peculiar Béla Bartók-inspired nocturnal sounds are embedded in rather tranquil material, the dancin’ and rockin’ moments of which come a little late for impatient or unsympathetic listeners. But when they do come, they will jolt one way or the other, before Ligeti falls back into a mysterious, murmuring tone. A good performance by this Swiss/Japanese group, but not up to the level of how I have heard this work before, either on record or live. Brahms’ op.51/2 followed, laudably light after the wobbly beginning, but threatening to fall apart. The cellist was notably playful, the inner movements (apart from some struggle with intonation) bland, and the finale precise again, and aptly aggressive.

Only me and fellow doubters of the Brahms quartets’ merits will have been disappointed by the Polish boys from the Apollon Musagete, a favorite after the first round, to have chosen op.51/1 instead of one of the late Dvořák quartets, which were also an option. The group’s choice of Lutosławski’s quartet from 1964 meanwhile was understandable given the common idiom and likelihood that their countryman’s quartet has long been part of their repertoire. The first movements of the Lutosławski quartet had been intriguing and entertaining with the Gémeaux Quartet, too. But it could well take a Polish quartet intimately familiar with the work to rescue it from the lengths of the meanders latter half. With Apollon Musagetes, the quick glissandi stood out (like a cheeping birthday shout-out to Messiaen), as did how the first violinist (in keeping with Bruce Dickinson’s dictum) “really explored the space” with his pizzicatos. They succeeded with Lutosławski in that even the ending, though still demanding very active listening, was suspenseful and subjectively shorter.

Heaves & Pomerray, the British/South African Quartet, played the same Brahms as the colleagues who preceded them, but they didn’t play it the same way. Thankfully, as it turned out, because every one of those four movements was good, not to say stupendous. They tackled the first movement at a fine clip, never letting the music grind them down. There were genuine touches of delight in the second movement and complete evenness among the four voices (unlike in round one) from which the instruments emerged to sing; quiet passages were hesitant, but never halting. The elegant momentum was continued into and through the third movement, they sounded much less hard working than Apollon Musagete, and the accuracy and expressiveness of the finale sealed a Brahmsian triumph. The Bavarian Radio, which records all performances from the second round on, might as well press that one straight to disc.

Their Second Quartet of Ligeti – in my mind the unofficial soundtrack to David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” – furthered this good impression. Ligeti’s work is a terrific panoply of weird evocations. The first movement virtually requires the audience to hold its breath. Later on, the notes become little ants crawling down your back, intermittently dancing a Sarabande. Brutality, at last, comes out in the fourth movement, just before the twilight rises in the finale with dawn approaching in rich colors before the movement begins to bustle, teeming with life again. Very nicely done, indeed, and the only obvious choice for a semi-final inclusion among the participants of the second round.

Last for the day was the Verus Quartet, a favorite after their mature and very cultivated performance in the first round. Brahms op.51/2 and that dreary Shostakovich 13^th quartet were their program. In as unthankful a work as the latter, a quartet is less likely to rouse (as with Schnittke, or proper Ligeti) – and so they have to rely on impressing them and the jury, which can be something quite different. The supreme technical capabilities that the Verus Quartet had already shown undoubtedly favored them, but DSCH – even no.13 – cannot live on accuracy and polish alone. Grit is of the essence, and top-notch Shostakovich really ought to sweat blood. The Verus Quartet’s Shostakovich didn’t even perspire, although it was accurate and distinguished, alright. Did they think: “Knock on wood, let's hope we’ll advance”?

Their Brahms was perhaps the disappointment of the day: Expecting so much from them, they delivered something less than precise, neither full bodied nor particularly elegant… a compromise that only worked in the third movement, and even there not very well. The finale was a little unhinged, but at least that they played as though they meant it. There was no doubt they would advance into the finale (as they did), but solely on their first round performance, I’d say.

Recommended recordings of the string quartets played in this round:

Mendelssohn, String Quartet No.6, op.80, Eroica Quartet . Schnittke, String Quartet No.3, Kronos Quartet

Brahms, String Quartet op.51/2, Mandelring Quartett . Ligeti, Quartet No.1, Hagen Quartett

Brahms, String Quartet No.1, op.51/1, Alban Berg Quartet . Lutoslawski, Quartet for Strings, Hagen Quartett (ArkivCD)

Ligeti, String Quartet No.2, Arditti Quartet . Shostakovich, String Quartet No.13, Shostakovich Quartet

Güra and Berner Explore the Mozart Back-Catalogue

Mozart, Lieder / Klavierstücke, W. Güra, C. Berner (released March 11, 2008) Harmonia Mundi HMC 901979 Online scores: Neue Mozart-Ausgabe

In the years since the big Mozart anniversary, more and more Mozart recordings by historically informed performance (HIP) groups have crossed my desk, from the piano concertos, to the operas, and works for keyboard. There is more on this recent release, which pairs some more of the minor piano pieces with obscurities from the Mozart song oeuvre. German tenor Werner Güra may not have the sort of voice that guarantees a success with every program, but intelligent choices and a certain natural, well-executed style of performance have made several of his recordings excellent listening. He has had particular success when paired with Austrian pianist Christoph Berner, as in their Brahms Liebeslieder-Walzer and especially a 2005 disc of Brahms and the Schumanns, with Berner on a 19th-century piano.

Güra and Berner return to that formula with their Mozart program, with Berner playing on a Streicher pianoforte. No specifics about the instrument are provided in the booklet, meaning that it is likely an instrument significantly later than Mozart. Little matter, as the tone is sweet, mellow, but still crunchy with percussive sounds when needed. Of the four pieces for keyboard alone, two were also featured in Richard Egarr's disc of the Mozart fantasias and rondos. The F major rondo, K. 494, was new to my ears, and the middle section in the parallel minor (starting at bar 95) is pleasingly mysterious, as is Mozart's exploration of the bass register in the closing measures. Likewise, the 18-year-old composer's set of six variations on "Mio caro Adone" (from the Act II finale of Salieri's opera La fiera di Venezia) is an interesting early version of what Mozart's variation technique will become later in his life.

The pianoforte recorded here is suited to the lyrical side of Güra's voice, although he strays too far toward affectation in some of the songs' cuter moments. For some listeners the performance may be a little free with rubato stretch and pull, but it is a good way to liven up the strophic songs (like Der Verschweigung, K. 518). Only the most determined of completists would be disappointed to learn that Güra omits many of the strophes (what? only 5 of the 18 verses of Das Lied der Trennung?). To keep things interesting, Güra and Berner occasionally introduce tasteful and stylistically appropriate ornamentation, as in Das Traumbild, K. 530. Of few pieces on this program could the word "major discovery" be seriously applied, but as a whole it brings to life this occasional and intimate repertoire.

63'39"

Ionarts at Large: Notes from the ARD International Music Competition (Day 8)

The second round of the string quartet competition included all but one of my favorite quartets from the first round: the EnAccord Quartet, whose delectable Schulhoff performance had charmed so much, somehow did not make the cut. But the Afiara Quartet from Canada was present again on this first day of eight remaining quartets vying for a semi-final slot. In front of the six professional string quartet judges (former members of the Ysaÿe, Cleveland, Tokyo/Borodin, Arditti, Orford, and Petersen Quartets) and their presiding amateur chairman, Sir Peter Jonas they started with the Mendelssohn’s a-minor quartet op.13. As much I liked the quartet in the first round, this performance found me nothing but frustrated.

There was nothing that suggested a notable fault on the quartet’s part and yet the music didn’t gel. It consistently sounded less than I know the Mendelssohn quartet can sound like. Would a better separation of the voices helped? Nicer sounding instruments? I was – and remain – baffled and disappointed. And disappointment is not easily cured with the drab 13^th String Quartet of Shostakovich; to these ears the gloomy equivalent of the 8^th Symphony. It’s a difficult work to really get into and it doesn’t grab the listener by the lapels to hold him or her for its to duration. This wasn’t the fault of the performers (indeed, the solo viola parts might have qualified David Samuel for the viola semi-final later that day), but more likely the work. The shrieking was well shrieked, the droning well droned, the batting well batted, and the plucking well plucked. Not enough of this for a semi-finals spot, I regret to say, but a marvelous impression. I can only hope that they’ll come down from Canada to visit Washington some time soon.

The Gémeaux Quartet started with Witold Lutosławski’s only “Quartet for Strings”. Anne Schoenholtz delivered absolute precision and purity – very necessary during the long violin solo prologue – before the filigrane voices of the work came together as a very finely woven silver mesh. Irregularly occurring violent ruptures added an intrusive texture like plowed furrows on snow covered fields. The work is chock-full of intriguing touches (including whale song) and as such a better listen than DSCH13. But could it not have been edited down to half its length and made a better impression, still? The Gémeaux’ Mendelssohn – also op.13 – was less confusing, more satisfying now. Was it greater cohesion, their instruments, they way they breathed during the opening phrase that told my ears something was going to be terribly right with this rendition? Even with a third movement that could have benefited from being more sprightly, op.13 did not now leave the strangely, ambiguously ambivalent feeling it still had an hour earlier.

Last for the day was the Amaryllis Quartet that I had not much enjoyed (and thus underestimated) during their first appearance. Now they played Brahms’ op.51/2 in just the way that heaves the quartet from merely listenable to enjoyable. The way they sailed through the opening with lightness and grace (which needs to be wrestled from Brahms) while concealing the effort this must have taken, was most impressive. Any band that can make Haydenesque slippers out of the sensible boots that are Brahms, is most welcome to these ears, indeed. It got better, still, with the “Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánsky, Op. 28” – effectively György Kurtág’s third string quartet. After the Lutosławski, the fear of Kurtág emptied the auditorium by a third. What they missed was a very moving work of great conciseness in what were six short ‘cells’, rather than movements. The succinctness wasn’t the only evocation of Anton Webern. The third cell with its erraticisms particularly reminded of that only composer who fully understood the virtue of brevity. Strain and stress, dynamic extremes and whispering strings were the hallmark of the second cell, and even with a phone ringing incessantly and workers banging about on the roof again, the Amaryllis did a marvelous job getting through the Officium’s gentle, sew-sawing, and wailing moods (at one point like a metaphysical dance).

Notes from the ARD Intl. Music Competition: Day 2: Viola Competition, Round 1 (2) (September 2) Day 3: Viola Competition, Round 1 (3) (September 3) Day 4: Viola Competition, Round 1 (4) (September 4) Day 5: String Quartet Competition, Round 1 (1) (September 5) Day 6: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (2) (September 6) Day 7: String QuartetCompetition, Round 1 (3) (September 7) Day 8: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (1) and Viola, Semi-Finals (September 8) Day 9: String QuartetCompetition, Round 2 (2) (September 9) Day 10: Viola, Final (September 10) Day 11: String Quartet, Semi-Finals (September 11) Day 12: Clarinet, Final (September 12) Days 13 & 14: String Quartet & Bassoon Finals (September 13 & 14)

The second round of string quartets ended in the early afternoon so that the jury member Atar Arad would be able to listen to his commissioned work Tikvah (“Hope) played by the five viola semi-finalists. (The ARD Competition commissions a new work very year for each of the instrumental categories which are mandatory to play in the semi finals.) Hearing this particular piece in so many different interpretations in quick succession raised a host of questions. “What makes the value of a piece of music?”, for example. Wen Xiao Zheng, by now a favorite for the final, played it first and the piece sounded every bit as trite as its dedication to “ALL innocent victims of senseless violence, regardless of their ethnicity or beliefs”. Never mind that the latter qualification hardly needed to be spelled out (would anyone suggest that Mr. Arad might feel strongly against violence, except when it affects, say, Buddhists?), but why not throw in a plea for an end to all hunger and world-peace? (Actually, he does more or less call for that in his little preamble.)

Call me cynical, but I find that sort of blue-eyed, mushy naïveté almost cynical itself. “Tikvah” is a modest, twelve minute long composition for solo viola that will be played five times at this competition and then never again. Not that noble wishes are per se worthy of mockery, but at this inflationary rate of high-minded, high-falutin’ dedications, I might as well dedicate my morning’s cereal consumption to the hope of ending white slavery. And tonight, I shall brush my teeth in memory of ALL victims of breast cancer.

Back to the music: Wen Xiao Zheng, who had just put down an immensely polished performance of the Franz Anton Hoffmeister Viola Concerto in D, played the notes of this double-stop étude right (it’s very reasonably notated), but he may not have thought much about the music. It sounded so hopelessly unnecessary that I secretly wished for Reger’s g-minor Suite, instead. The most moving moment was an altered scale. But then came Sergey Malov, another favorite, and incredibly he turned acoustic meaningless and empty clichés of middle-easternish sounds into music. The altered scale turned into a Berg reference, grace notes into allusions of place and time, ascending double stops into a Bach homage, and a little Klezmer broke through, too. If music is as good and valuable as it can be made to sound, then Malov either showed that there might be (limited) merit to “Tikvah” after all. Or he proved an artist of such caliber that he can truly make silk purses out of sows ears’.

Lili Maijala and Dimitri Murrath didn’t follow that route quite as far, but apparently Teng Li did. The concerto part, meanwhile, was very well taken by Zheng and Malov (who played the Stamitz instead of the Hoffmeister). Mr. Murrath chopped moments of terrific sound to small bits by too many kinks. Mlle. Maijala had no fewer mishaps and a flexible intonation, to boot, but managed to make the music sound as enjoyable as any performer did and offered a tone, not unlike Malov, that made the viola sound like a compromise between the violin and cello – not their lowest common denominator. Teng Li’s tone meanwhile wasn’t how I prefer a viola to sound, but her Hoffmeister immaculate. The star of these concertos was the Munich Chamber Orchestra (MKO), however. They deserve the highest laurels for playing Hoffmeister and Stamitz, at a competition no less, with the utmost engagement and dedication… better and more committed than many a regular orchestra during regular concerts.

With the results already in: all but Dimitri Murrath made it into the finale which will take place on September 10^th.

Recommended recordings of the string quartets played so far in this round:

Mendelssohn, String Quartet No.2, op.13, Quatuor Talich Shostakovich, String Quartet No.13, Shostakovich Quartet

Mendelssohn, String Quartet No.2, op.13, Eroica Quartet Lutoslawski, Quartet for Strings, Hagen Quartett (ArkivCD)

Brahms, String Quartet op.51/2, Mandelring Quartett Kurtág, "Officium breve", Keller Quartet