Ferdinand Thieriot (1838-1919)
Chamber Music Volume 4
String Quartet in g minor
String Quartet in B flat major
String Quartet in c minor
Amadeus Chamber Musicians
rec. 2025, Hardstudios, Winterthur, Switzerland
First recordings
Toccata Classics TOCC0783 [78]
By starting at Volume 4, I’m joining the party late with Ferdinand Thieriot. I daresay many of you, like me, assumed that he was French or even Spanish from his name. In fact, he was born, and spent much of his life, in Hamburg. He composed widely across most genres, including ten symphonies, a similar number of concertos, and a substantial body of chamber music, which is where Toccata has been delving. We have reviewed two of the earlier volumes in this series (Volume 1 ~ Volume 3).
Thieriot’s collection of scores and other items had been “relocated” to St Petersburg after WWII, and then forgotten. The archive was rediscovered in a partly flooded basement in 1983, and returned to Hamburg in 1991 in a damaged state that required substantial restoration. Among the scores were ten string quartets, to be put alongside the two that were published in his lifetime. The three presented here, recorded for the first time, are among those from the nearly lost archive.
The quartets, which are undated, are consistent in form: all in four movements (no surprise there, Thieriot was no radical), with faster outer movements, a slow second and an Intermezzo placed third, and within a minute’s duration of each other at around 26 minutes. For those needing a signpost regarding style, it will probably be of no surprise to know we are in the general vicinity of Brahms and Schumann, especially the former who was a friend of Thieriot’s. Thieriot is less angst-ridden than Schumann (who wasn’t?) and less passionate than Brahms. Sadly, he does not have the capacity for melody or sustaining interest of those two giants of German Romantic music. Each of the three works is pleasant enough company, but I’m not sure I will be returning to them any time soon. None of the movements exceeds ten minutes – most are around six – so Thieriot did not fall into the trap of over-extending himself, but there is not a lot to excite one. The spark of inspiration burns pretty low.
Of the three, the C minor is far and away the best, with some real drama in the opening Allegro non tanto, but even here the development section doesn’t go anywhere especially interesting. The Romanza has some soulful and stormy moments, while the Intermezzo quasi scherzo has a lot more depth than the equivalent movements in the other two. It is marked Allegro vivace and I did think that there could have been a bit more vivacity here in the playing. The Allegro non troppo that concludes the work has a lightness that brought Haydn and Mozart to mind.
The performers are part of a larger group associated with the Amadeus publishing house. They acquit themselves well enough in this totally unfamiliar music. The sound quality is good and the booklet notes are of the usual high standard for this label. The musical analysis is quite detailed, more so than I needed for my listening, but some will find it very valuable.
I applaud Toccata for its courage, as Sir Humphrey would say, in continuing this series – the first volume came out in 2010 – but I think this release is mainly for the string quartet aficionado, and those really wedded to the unsung composer idiom.
David Barker
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