Tchaikovsky & Korngold: String Sextets (Hyperion)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
String Sextet in D minor ‘Souvenir de Florence’ Op.70 (1890)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
String Sextet in D major Op.10 (1914)
Nash Ensemble
rec. 2023, St. Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London
Hyperion CDA68406 [70]

Hyperion Records was founded in 1980 and it is a testament to the consistent high quality of both its artists, recordings and choice of repertoire that many of the earliest releases still hold considerable sway in the catalogue. A fine example of these early triumphs were a series of recordings made by the Raphael Ensemble who produced roughly a dozen or so genuinely excellent discs. Consequently, it comes as something of a shock to realise that these still freshly-minted performances are all now around thirty years old. Which perhaps explains why Hyperion is choosing to return to repertoire already included in that stellar Raphael discography for this new disc from the equally distinguished Nash Ensemble.

The two works recorded here are genuine masterpieces of the String Sextet repertoire and should be familiar to anyone with more than a passing interest in Romantic Chamber Music. That said, I do think the couplings on the original Hyperion disc; the Arensky String Quartet in A minor with the Tchaikovsky and the extraordinary Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht with the Korngold to be more appropriate. Both line-ups of players are genuinely stellar and they perform with an ideal blend of technical virtuosity and musical sensitivity. Both recordings were overseen by Andrew Keener so the production values are predictably high. But if pushed to choose, I would opt for the earlier Raphael performances. Of course part of that choice might be coloured by familiarity but there are subtle differences that dictate that preference. Ben Winters’ liner note for this new release usefully outlines Tchaikovsky’s struggles with this score lasting several years and various revisions. But for the listener the Souvenir de Florence presents itself as one of the composer’s sunniest, least troubled major scores. Yes of course there is drama and incident aplenty but little if any of the heart-rending anguish of many of his most enduring works. This is a late piece – completed in 1890 and by opus number adjacent/followed by The Nutcracker. Certainly it shares with that most famous score a vigorous energy and melodic richness. There is also warmth and vivacious humour in the work. My feeling is that The Nash Ensemble play with all the requisite dynamic vigour but at the price of that warmth. This might be in small part due to the quite close and forensic recording by engineer Oscar Torres made in St. Silas the Martyr Church. The 1993 Raphael disc was made at St. Georges Brandon Hill but it is afforded a fraction more air around the instruments. Looking at the Hyperion website I see a featured review from that disc’s original release mentions “charm” which is perhaps something slightly lacking in this new Nash performance. Timings between the two performances are very similar – a case of nip and tuck from movement to movement so it is more of a case of the spirit of the performances. In truth these are two very fine ensembles both of whom play this music marvellously.

Extraordinary to think that when the Raphaels recorded Korngold’s String Sextet in D major Op.10 in 1990 it was a major act of musical rehabilitation. They had given the work its UK public premiere just three years earlier some 83 years after it was written. Their recording was not the first although it did outshine the trailblazing version by the Berlin Sextett in 1986 on Etcetera. Fast forward to today and there have been quite a few more recordings – in both the original and string orchestra version – often made as an appendix to a survey of the composer’s three string quartets. If Tchaikovsky struggled with his sextet Korngold seems to have tossed his off with the precocity that only a genuine prodigy could achieve. No matter how often I recall that Korngold was just seventeen when he wrote this work I am staggered all over again by its confident musical maturity. But it does occupy a quite different emotional landscape to the Tchaikovsky ranging from angular brilliance to aching nostalgia. There is also a muscularity in the writing that chimes more closely with the Nash’s approach. Over the years there have been a variety of performing styles – the Flesch Quartet included the sextet alongside the other three quartets on ASV/latterly Brilliant Classics. They favoured a lighter almost skittish approach that was technically polished but failed to dig deeply into the music. Of the more recent versions I enjoyed the Spectrum Arts Berlin performance which seems to be an ideal balance of tonal richness and expressive freedom allied to the abundant virtuosity this score demands. This new Hyperion disc does not give the Nash players quite the same warmth but the playing exudes the confident bravura energy that the young Korngold poured into the score. The third movement Intermezzo – Moderato con grazia foreshadows the melting nostalgia that inhabits so many of Korngold’s scores for whatever medium from his teens up until his death more than forty years after this work was written.

Both works make considerable demands on the players and to be fair I cannot think of a poor performance of either. The earlier Raphael performance of the Korngold probably earns the status of a reference recording given that it was the first to fully establish the credentials of this remarkable piece and it remains the performance – both in terms of technical production and musical insights – against which any newcomer must be judged. This new Nash performance is genuinely fine although in my own personal hierarchy of preferred versions it does not displace either the Raphaels or Spectrum Arts Berlin (this latter is one of a pair of excellent discs exploring Korngold’s chamber ensemble music away from the quartets).

The sheer quality of this Hyperion release continues the fine tradition of this label although in the final reckoning it does not supersede the earlier versions they recorded.

Nick Barnard

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