Brahms and Contemporaries Volume 2
Louise Héritte-Viardot (1841-1918)
Piano Quartet No. 1, in A major, Op. 9 Im Sommer (1883)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 (1855/1875)
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
rec. 2024, Potton Hall, Dunwich, UK
Chandos CHAN20329 [59]

The “collective” element is important. The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective are a loose but committed grouping of musicians who form and re-form depending on the resources required for the pieces of music they’re playing. (Think of something in the mode of the Nash or Hebrides Ensembles.) I’d only every come across them at the Lammermuir Festival (see review) when in one concert they’d played a quartet, a quintet and an octet. Their flexibility is key to their strength, however, as is the fact that they’re clearly a top-notch team of individual musicians. 

This is the first of their Chandos discs that I’ve heard, so I haven’t yet heard the first in their series where they pair one of Brahms’s Piano Quartets with music of one of Brahms’ less familiar contemporaries. I enjoyed this one a lot, though.

In this case, the lesser-known contemporary in question is Louise Héritte-Viardot. She was the daughter of Pauline Viardot, the famous 19th-century singer and composer, so she was superbly well-connected musically. She nevertheless fell foul of all that society’s usual prejudices about woman composers. This piano quartet is very worthwhile, however. Its title tells us that it’s all about nature and the pleasures of the outdoors, and each movement has a subtitle (Morning, in the woods; Flies and butterflies; Sultriness; Evening, under the oak tree). 

Consequently, the music is mostly relaxed and full of uncomplicated pleasure. There is a beauteous ease to the long-breathed opening, which vigorously works out its material, but with gentle expansiveness rather than urgent drive, and there is a lovely sense of brimming over as it develops. There is a consistent sense of the gentle bliss of the countryside, a level of feeling similar to the opening movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. The Scherzo sets quivering strings against a rippling piano line (for the flies and butterflies, of course) and there is a gorgeous viola line at the start of the slow movement. Each string quietly sings against a gentle piano ripple to lovely effect, making an atmosphere that slowly and expansively unfold – relaxed rather than sultry. 

Héritte-Viardot’s finale is not quite as successful; it’s more mixed in tone and mood, and feels as if it’s trying out different things and not quite deciding. Still, the four musicians here pay it the great compliment of taking it seriously, and play it beautifully. Tom Poster’s piano is a constant rock, and the lyrical, honeyed tone of the string players is both consistent and consistently engaging. 

Brahms’s final piano quartet is a concert staple, of course, and the Kaleidoscope players are not in the slightest bit cowed by taking it on. They get stuck in from the off with a terrifically dramatic opening, which is paced and judged beautifully so that it builds seemingly inexorably to the first climax, the cello’s repeated crotchets which sound like stalking footsteps or the inescapable ticking of a pendulum. The piano plays the lyrical second theme with mahogany beauty, combining seriousness with songfulness; the effect when the cello takes it up later in the movement is hugely satisfying. The whole movement combines earnestness with excitement and dashes of beauty while avoiding sounding austere, and the final C minor chord has just the right combination of culmination and anticipation for what comes next. 

There is lithe, febrile energy to the Scherzo and, as in Héritte-Viardot’s quartet, the slow movement opens with long-lined string melodies against the piano’s unobtrusive accompaniment. The effect is of beautiful interweaving lines, a delight in which to lose yourself. There is a more vigorous sense of exploration to the finale, as though it’s staying mysterious as to where it’s going. However, there is a constant sense of forward flow to the playing, like following a thread. These players understand the importance of Brahms’s sense of structure, and they know well how to unlock it for maximum effect. When the shift to the major comes it isn’t overegged and there remains a sense of elation to the final bars, but it’s hard-won and never overdone. 

This series seems to be about making enlightening comparisons and, truth be told, I can’t say I noticed many (unlike my colleague, Dominic Hartley), though that may say more about me. The Héritte-Viardot quartet is an interesting enough piece, but this stands thanks to the Brahms, and it’s for the success with which they bring that to life that I’ll be coming back to this disc. The recorded sound is excellent, and Nicholas Marston’s booklet notes are very much up to Chandos’s typical high standard.

Simon Thompson

Previous review: Dominic Hartley (June 2025)

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