Serenade
Ernst Krenek (1900-1991)
Serenade for clarinet, violin, viola and cello, Op.4 (1919)
Hans Gál (1890-1987)
Serenade for clarinet, violin and cello, Op.93 (1935)
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020)
Quartet for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello (1993)
Kilian Herold (clarinet)
Florian Donderer (violin), Barbara Buntrock (viola), Tanja Tetzlaff (cello)
rec. 2021, Hans-Rosbaud-Studio, SWR Kultur Baden-Baden, Germany
AVI-Music 8553537 [58]
Austrian-born Ernst Krenek underwent wide-ranging development as a composer. He began his career in the music salons of Weimar Republic Berlin, and explored diverse styles. He developed a post-romantic idiom, neo-classicism, atonality, his own brand of serialism and even electronics. In 1938, he emigrated to the United States. His catalogue includes symphonies, operas and chamber music. His best-known work may be the jazz-inspired opera Jonny Spielt Auffrom 1926.
Krenek completed Serenade for clarinet, violin, viola and cello whilst he was studying with Franz Schreker in Vienna. It was premiered in 1921 at the Donaueschingen Chamber Music Performances for the advancement of contemporary music.
The Serenade is in two movements. The second has five sections, on this recording labelled individually. It is in a late-romantic style with neo-classical overtones. Yet here and there, the music becomes harder-edged, reflecting the post-First World War situation. Overall, the mood is lyrical and approachable. Many years ago, the critic Tom Cleman remarked that the stylistic parameters are “delineated by the landmarks set up by Claude Debussy, Max Reger, Richard Strauss, and perhaps Alexander Scriabin.” This holds good, but I would add that there are hints of expressionism, for example in the slow movement’s nod to Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.
This is a world premiere recording, splendidly played. The present ensemble are great advocates for this “forgotten” piece.
Hans Gál was a Viennese composer. Like Krenek, he found it impossible to live under the Nazi regime. In 1938, he fled to Britain, was interned, and later took up residence in Edinburgh. At the behest of musicologist Donald Tovey, he worked at Edinburgh University, where in 1945 he was appointed a lecturer. This is not meant as demeaning, but much of Gál’s oeuvre could be regarded as “retro”. He looked back rather than forward in his aesthetic. Brahms had a major effect, but so did the “playful humour of early classicism” and the “extended tonality of early 20th century music”. He never adopted serial technique. His music is nearly always lyrical and restrained.
The Serenade for clarinet, violin and cellohas four movements, typically relaxed. The opening Cantabile balances an almost pastoral opening with a prickly second subject. The scherzo, Burletta, is the other way round. Here the ‘trio’ presents the lyrical mood whilst the ‘minuet’ section is sarcastic and dark. The slow movement, a short Intermezzo is lugubrious, with pizzicato strings and sad melody. This leads to a cadenza, and then the Giocoso brings the Serenade to a happy-ever-after conclusion but not before a lovely little tune is expounded.
People of a certain age will recall Krzysztof Penderecki as an innovative disciple of the avant-garde. He made his name with the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra from 1960, and the St Luke’s Passion from 1966. He used various techniques, such as the “juxtaposition of sound masses”, extended instrumental techniques and graphic scores. In the mid-1970s, his made a major stylistic change. To the chagrin of his progressive fans, he looked back to Bruckner and Liszt for inspiration. His 1977 Violin Concerto was an early indication.
Penderecki said that he had been encouraged to write the Quartet for clarinet, violin, viola and cello after “rediscovering Schubert’s great C major Quintet” while he attended a concert of that work performed by Mstislav Rostropovich and the Emerson Quartet. It is not a precise model for the present piece, but both share a sense of melancholy and tenderness.
The opening movement’s gentle dialogue between clarinet and viola provides a sad start. The Scherzo, rapid and quicksilver, is followed by a parody of a Viennese waltz. The final movement, Abschied, does echo the elder composer’s sadness visible towards the end of his life.
In preparing for this review, I came across an excellent summation of the Clarinet Quartet’s stylistic parameters: it “creates the impression of a retrospective of European art music from the first half of the twentieth century, perhaps the missing link in Penderecki’s own oeuvre”. Composers who have influenced this Quartet are Beethoven and Schubert, Schoenberg in its wayward waltz, and even Alban Berg. Penderecki combines austerity of sound with a deep emotional statement. The work was premiered on 13 August 1993 in Lübeck, Germany.
The star of the show is clarinettist Kilian Herold, but the other performers are integral to the disc’s success. Johannes Jansen’s liner notes (which helped me with the review) give an outstanding introduction to the music with a focus on context. The recording is clear, dynamic and well balanced.
These are convincing accounts that explore rare but rewarding works.
John France
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