Recording of the Month

February 99

Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, op.4 (Original version for String sextet)

Franz Schubert: String Quintet in C, D,956

The Hollywood Quartet, Alvin Dinkin, viola, Kurt Reher, cello

1993 (1950/51). Testament SBT 1031 (Mono) full price

This CD offers you no less than superb recordings of two of the greatest chambermusic works written. The Testament label is one of several specializing in releasing historical recordings on Compact Disc. They have access to the comprehensive archives of EMI and have released quite a few gems over the last years, featuring artists such as Edwin Fischer, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Solomon, Busch Quartet and Yehudi Menuhin, along with several other greats of the past. This release of The Hollywood Quartet's brilliant recordings of the Schoenberg sextet and Schubert quintet, from 1950 and 1951 ranks among the finest ever done on either work, and surely are unpresedented as a coupling.

Arnold Schoenberg, one of artmusic's great revolutionaries is first and foremost associated with Verkärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) (1899), written prior to his probings into atonality and what was to become known as 12-tone music, a work that closely resembles the harmonically challenged late romantic style of compatriot and friend Gustav Mahler. Transfigured Night was originally written as a string sextet, and later revised and arranged for string orchestra. It is regretably the latter version that completely dominates the world of recorded music, with its grander scale and sound. Recordings such as Karajan's legendary account with the Berlin Philharmonics or either of Boulez's approaches, prove the orchestral version fullfilling, but in my opinion the proximity to the musical essence, the directness and intensity of the score, is better served in the condensed chamberversion.

The Hollywood Quartet fastens a firm grip on the listener from the very first gloomy bar, and they prove most reluctant to let go of one's undivided attention. Verklärte Nacht is a tone poem, lending its name from a Richard Dehmel poem taken from his collection "Weib und Welt". The rather embarrasing text depicts to lovers walking through a forest at night with the moon breaking through the canopy. The woman confesses a rather unfortunate event of infidelity, resulting in pregnancy, but the man forgives her, as their love is elevated above such trivialities. I apologize for mocking Dehmel's vision of transcending love, but it really is a bit clumsy. Schoenberg's musical vision of the cold clear moonlight, the wowen texture of the dark treetops, and the love that defies profane and earthly struggles, is nothing of the sort. It is as masterly as it is deeply moving. The Hollywood Quartet serves the music with a wide range of tonalcolour and shadings, and their eloquence as well as their unity is unfaltering.

Franz Schubert's string quintet must be among a very few works that are of absolute greatness. One will find it on virtually everyone's list of favorite chamberworks, and it is pretty near the top of mine. The four movements encompass seemingly everything, from the slighty shaded elegance of the opening allegro through the most hauntingly beatutiful adagio imaginable in the second movement. The fervor of the scherzo and final allegretto rounds off this work which seems encyclopedic in emotional expression. The Hollywood Quartet's approach is a slightly reserved and most elegant one. However they never paint with glossy colours or cover the omnipresent nerve of the work. The constant dance of light and shade is encouraged throughout the four movements by an ensemble whose dedication and disipline match their fine musicianship. This recording is an important addition to the excisting catalogue on CD, although it can't quite compare with, what in my opinion is the greatest account on record: namely Pablo Casals et. al.'s almost painfully intense recording on Sony (Casals-edition). Nevertheless this is a vastly rewarding string quintet, and as for the two works together: this CD is one to have.

Testament Records

Web Resources Arnold Schoenberg

Franz Schubert

- The Orpheo House -
- Recommended Recordings -

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page