String Quartets from Vienna
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
String Quartet in A minor (1921)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
String Quartet No.3, Op.34 (1945)
Angeles String Quartet
rec. 1993, Whitman Auditorium, Steamboat Springs, USA
Alto ALC1499 [57]
Arnold Steinhardt, of the Guarneri Quartet, once brought the Kreisler String Quartet to one of his ensemble’s regular run-throughs for works for potential inclusion in the quartet’s repertoire. They played through it, and it was then comprehensively vetoed by the other three members, the most vociferous of whom was cellist David Soyer who particularly objected to the finale’s use of ‘Chinese monkey business’ – that, to us, relatively mild pentatonic chinoiserie that Kreisler employed here and indeed elsewhere in his compositions.
Thus it was that the Guarneri Quartet never played the Kreisler. However, it’s received a good few recordings over the years from the abridged acoustic 78s made by the London String Quartet in the early 1920s, the composer’s own recording with his ‘London Quartet’ group the following decade – Kreisler taking the first violin role – and onwards. In 1993 the Angeles String Quartet recorded it in Colorado for Koch International and it’s now been remastered and released under licence by Alto, coupled with Korngold’s Third Quartet, his most harmonically exploratory. It was a disc that won plaudits at the time and should win them again – the conjunction of the two Viennese works is apt, and even though they were not necessarily composed in the city, its aura pervades them both.
The Kreisler Quartet is played with especial warmth and generosity and a genuine elegance. They catch the ‘Fantasia’ first movement flawlessly and negotiate the crisp unisons in the Scherzo without brittleness. Rhythms are alive in the ‘Prelude and Romance’ and the languid Romance is finely prepared and played with sumptuous – but not treacly – sentiment. The finale holds no structural terrors, its close dapperly negotiated by the foursome – Kathleen Lenski and Steven Miller, violins, Brain Dembow, viola, and Stephen Erdody, cello. Its relatively unhurried approach is reminiscent of the more recent Fine Arts recording for Naxos but I find the Angeles the warmer, tonally speaking, though the Fine Arts couples Kreisler imaginatively with works by other violinists, Zimbalist and Ysaÿe. By comparison the Artis Quartett Wien on Nimbus rather hustle through it in 25 minutes. The Brodsky Quartet reprised the ‘aus Wien’ theme in their 2001 recording for Challenge Classics, coupling Kreisler with Korngold’s Second Quartet and taking echt-Kreisleresque tempi in his work.
Korngold’s Third Quartet was composed in 1945 and dedicated to Bruno Walter. The chromaticism in the opening movement is an index of the uneasy urgency embedded in the writing and it’s only in the trio section of the Scherzo that Korngold’s lyric fluency really emerges. Thereafter the slow movement, ‘like a folk tune’, offers a gorgeous oasis after the accumulation of energy that only once suffers a moment of athleticism before sinking back to the opening’s reverie-like nostalgia. As the movement develops one can’t help noticing that the reverie takes on an element of threnody – Korngold has beguiled the listener only to deepen the expressive quotient of his music. By contrast, the quicksilver finale re-establishes Korngold’s sparkle. If you want a much terser and swifter vision of the quartet, turn to the Tippett Quartet on Naxos – a strikingly different approach. I’ve not always been a massive fan of the Doric (on Chandos) and except for the slow movement they, too, are quicker than the Angeles. Both the Tippett and Doric’s releases include all three of Korngold’s quartets.
In the end your choice will depend on the particular couplings given the excellence of the performances. I can certainly commend this reissue. Its recorded sound is first-class, there are decent notes, and the performances are idiomatic and frequently compelling.
Jonathan Woolf
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