Déjà Review: this review was first published in April 2002 and the recording is still available.
Miklós Rózsa (1907-1996)
String Quartet No 1, Op 22 (1950)
String Quartet No 2, Op 38 (1981)
Sonata for two violins, Op 15a (1933, rev. 1973)¹
The Flesch Quartet (Philippa Ibbotson, Mark Denman, violins; Robert Gibbs, viola and violin¹; David Newby, cello)
rec. 2000, St Silas Church, Kentish Town (string quartets) and 2000, Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, Weston, Hertfordshire
ASV CD DCA 1105 [64]
Miklós Rózsa’s undisputed reputation as a composer of substantial film scores has often obscured his remarkable achievement in the field of pure, abstract music. Throughout his busy career in Hollywood, he managed to compose a sizeable body of substantial concert works. Over the last ten years or so, many of his major orchestral works, including his superb concertos, have been recorded. The credit then went to Koch Records. Now, ASV fill an important gap in Rózsa’s discography with the present recordings of his string quartets and of his Sonata, Op 15a for two violins.
In the early 1930s, Rózsa composed a string quartet of which he later banned any performance or publishing, though the complete score exists in the archives deposited at the University of Syracuse. (Curiously enough, Rózsa allotted the same opus number [Op 6] to his masterly symphony, completed in 1930.)
So, Rózsa’s official String Quartet No 1, Op 22 was completed in 1949 and revised in 1950. It is a substantial, ambitious work in four sizeable movements, of which the slow movement Lento is the emotional core. This impassioned meditation was later scored for string orchestra by the late Christopher Palmer under Rózsa’s supervision (available on Koch 3-7152). The first movement, a set of variations rather than the customary sonata-form shape, is followed by a nervous Scherzo in modo ongarese in which the composer’s Hungarian roots are clearly evident. The First String Quartet finishes with a lively Rondo alternating an angular first subject and a more lyrical second subject, and ends with an exalted coda.
Written thirty years later, the String Quartet No 2, Op 38 is clearly a mature work in which the material, still recognisably Rózsa and Hungarian, is more intricately developed. The quartet’s four highly characterised movements are closely thematically related, and the work as a whole has a greater structural and thematic coherence than its companion. Again, the playful Scherzo, placed third this time, is All’Ungherese. By the time the Second String Quartet was composed, Rózsa’s formal mastery had reached its peak, and the quartet’s musical argument is worked out with a sure hand. This might well be one of Rózsa’s finest concert works.
The earlier Sonata for two Violins, Op 15, composed in 1933 and revised in 1973 as Op 15a, is somewhat lighter in mood. It sometimes recalls Bartok’s Duos, albeit on a more substantial scale. This is a truly delightful work.
As far as I can judge, the Flesch Quartet’s performances are excellent and are warmly recorded. The present release is a real winner and is warmly recommended. I have the secret hope that ASV will soon follow up with a recording of some other chamber works by Rózsa, such as the String Trio, Op 1 and the Piano Quintet, Op 2.
Hubert Culot
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