Rita Strohl (1865-1941)
Volume 2: Chamber Music
Contents listed after review
rec. 2023, Maison de l’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France; Studio Sextan La Fonderie, France
Reviewed as lossless download
La Boîte à Pépites BAP07-09 [201]
La Boîte à Pépites is a quite new French label, created with the express intention of recording music by French women composers, especially those with limited catalogue presence. The label’s name translates to “the treasure box”, and on the basis of its releases so far, and the care and attention lavished on them, the name is very apt.
This 3-CD set is the second of three released so far presenting the music of Rita Strohl, a name completely unknown to me before MWI published a review of Volume 3, which contains her orchestral music. It was accorded Recording of the Month status and led me to track down this volume. Her songs are presented in Volume 1 (review), and I refer you to there for John Quinn’s excellent summary of her life.
The nine works presented here comprise the majority of Strohl’s surviving chamber music, and come from a two-decade period, following the completion of her studies at the Paris Conservatoire in 1884. The earlier works are Romantic in style and show an affinity with composers such as Schumann and Mendelssohn. The later works, especially the clarinet trio Arlequin et Colombine and the piano pieces Musiques sur l’eau, show an evolution in her music, incorporating the impressionism of Debussy.
The two piano trios show a considerable development in her writing, despite only being composed four years apart. The first, written while still at the Conservatoire, is remarkably assured for a nineteen-year old, with very definite traces of Schumann and Mendelssohn. Four years on, whilst the second Trio is still quite clearly Romantic, there is a change in the atmosphere, and at the risk of stereotyping, it feels much more French. If you like Fauré’s first Piano Quartet, you will find something of a soulmate here. The “very slow and very mysterious” middle movement has beautifully transparent textures, and the finale scampers along delightfully. This is a brilliant work that deserves a place in the standard repertoire.
The Grand Fantasy-Quintet, at over half an hour, is a most ambitious work for a twenty-year-old, especially the fourteen-minute theme and variations finale, where Strohl’s ambitions have exceeded her abilities to an extent. It shows that she had been listening to Schumann’s masterpiece for the same combination. Whilst well short melodically or structurally of the Schumann (one would hardly expect it to be otherwise), it is still a very enjoyable piece. It also illustrates a common thread in her chamber music for piano: the piano, her instrument, does tend to get a rather dominant role, with the strings, frequently in unison, sometimes acting more as accompaniment.
Of the three earliest works – the first Trio, the Quintet and the String Quartet – it is the latter which is the most consistently successful. Unusually structured in five movements with a brief opening Allegro, it is mostly light in texture, and overflowing with Strohl’s melodic gifts, some of which seem to have a folk origin. As a pointer to style and feel, I could direct you to Dvořák’s American Quartet, but that would seem a trifle odd since that masterwork was composed eight years after Strohl’s (which is certainly not in the same league, but is still very fine).
The Septet is not for, as you might expect, a wind-dominated ensemble, but rather piano and strings (two violins, two violas, cello and double bass). I know of no other work for this combination. The presence of the four lower strings does give a very rich sound, though at times when the violins are in their higher registers, they can sound a little shrill in contrast. It’s not Strohl at her most melodically inventive, and interestingly, she reused the sublime slow movement from the second Trio, written two years earlier. Despite the presence of four more instruments, the textures remain transparent, which speaks highly of her skill in scoring.
Of the two programmatic works, Solitude, for cello and piano, stands out as an exceptional miniature, impassioned, soulful and quite gorgeous: another for the standard repertoire. Arlequin et Colombine, for clarinet, piano and cello, is a sweet piece based on the two Commedia dell’arte characters. The three short movements portray the characters and the love Harlequin (the cello) has for Columbine (the clarinet). In a recent review of works for clarinet trio, two of which were arrangements, I commented that the best of the three works was the one specifically written for the instrumental combination. Unsaid was the suggestion the performers should have chosen others specifically written for clarinet trio, and here in my next review is one that would have fitted the bill perfectly.
In a recent review, I resisted using the term “masterpiece”, because it is bandied about too much, but with the Piano Quartet, we have a work for which no other term seems appropriate. The outer movements are both over ten minutes, but each seems to fly by, while the slow movement is simply breathtakingly beautiful.
The latest work in the collection, Musiques sur l’eau, three pieces for solo piano from 1903, is something of an outlier in style. We are very much now in the world of Debussy, with considerable chromaticism and a degree of dissonance, not heard in the other works. I had a mixed response to them, but then again, I have the same to Debussy.
Duties are shared around a small group of players, but the style of performances is very consistent, and the quality of playing is very high. John Quinn, in his review of the volume of songs, praised the exceptional quality of the booklet. I suspect that the biographical section of the notes is repeated in this volume, and they are indeed, as John remarked, a model for how information on a little-known composer should be presented. I loved the beautiful coloured line drawings. The commentary on the works is informative and perceptive, and not bogged down in over-detailed analysis of the structure of the pieces. Sound quality is very good, though there is the occasional sniff and loud inhalation.
As far as I can see, the only work of these to have been recorded before is the Quintet, and that was only last year on the Bru Zane label (which appears to be associated with La Boîte à Pépites). This begs the question: how can this wonderful music have lain undiscovered for so long? There are at least four works here that demand to be part of the standard repertoire. My Recordings of the Year list was looking a little light, but here is a very obvious addition to it.
David Barker
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Contents
Grand Fantasy-Quintet (1886)
Septet (1890)
Arlequin et Colombine (1898)
Piano Quartet (1891)
Piano Trio No. 2 (1888)
Solitude (1897)
Piano Trio No. 1 (1884)
String Quartet (1885)
Musiques sur l’eau (1903)
Performers
Raphaëlle Moreau, Shuichi Okada, Alexandre Pascal (violin)
Léa Hennino, Claudine Legras (viola)
Héloïse Luzzati, Edgar Moreau, Aurélien Pascal (cello)
Lorraine Campet (double bass)
Nicolas Baldeyrou (clarinet)
Célia Oneto Bensaid, Tanguy de Williencourt (piano)
Quatuor Dutilleux
