Latest CD releases reviewed
SHOSTAKOVICH: STRING QUARTETS 3, 7, 8
Hagen Quartet Deutsche Grammophon 477 6146 *****
Shostakovich's Third Quartet was written in the wake of the second World War. His Seventh was dedicated to his late wife, Nina. His Eighth, completed in three days on a visit to Dresden in 1960, is inscribed to "the victims of fascism and war". However, calling the piece "an ideologically deficient quartet", he told his friend Isaak Glikman that he'd written it in memory of himself. The Hagen Quartet's performances keep the music on a tight rein. The playing sounds measured (even when almost headlong), and there's no redundant emoting. It's not that the Hagens fail to respond to the music's intensity, or the composer's espressivo markings, but that they also understand the power of a kind of frozen beauty, which often cuts very deep indeed. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan
MOZART: COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS
Hagen Quartet Deutsche Grammophon Collectors Edition 477 6253 (7 CDs) ****
The Hagen Quartet's highly polished recordings of Mozart's string quartets were made between 1988 and 2004, and the complete set now appears on seven discs at a greatly reduced price. The Hagens exploit the sonorities opened up in the development of quartet playing over the last half-century, but do so with a sensibility that's highly aware of period performance issues. As I put it in reviewing one of the original issues, "Their always thoughtful style is airy, coolly composed, rhythmically light, and judiciously restrained in its use of vibrato." This valuable set also includes the serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik (with Alois Posch, double bass), the Adagio and Fugue in C minor (with Roberto di Ronza) and the so-called Salzburg Divertimentos - all works now usually purloined by orchestras - as well as some arrangements of Bach fugues. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan
KAGEL: PIANO TRIOS 1 & 2; SCHNITTKE: TRIO
Liszt-Trio Weimar Aeon AECD 0639 ****
The coupling of these late 20th- and early 21st-century trios by Alfred Schnittke and Mauricio Kagel, all of them engaging overtly with the music of the past, brings to mind an old joke. The definition of a neurotic? Someone who builds castles in the air. A psychotic? Someone who lives in them. (The psychiatrist collects the rent from both.) Kagel gives the impression of being the builder, musing with a kind of lingering nostalgia over the possible implications of his airy creations. Schnittke's expressionist outbursts seem to suggest he lived a lot closer to his material. Kagel likes to retain an ambiguity that Schnittke is happy to shed. The fascinating juxtaposition on this well-planned CD is backed up by finely-judged playing from the Liszt-Trio Weimar. www.uk.hmboutique.com Michael Dervan
SCHOENBERG: SERENADE OP 24; VARIATIONS OP 31; BACH ORCHESTRATIONS
Stephen Varcoe (bass), Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble, New York, Philharmonia Orchestra/Robert Craft Naxos 8.557522 ****
The two major works here, from either end of the 1920s, could hardly be more different. Schoenberg's Serenade, a kind of follow-on to his Pierrot Lunaire, opens with the giddiest of marches, and the piece is as fantastical in manner and mood as its unusual scoring (clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, guitar and mandolin) might suggest. The bass voice is used in just one movement, an agitated Petrarch setting. The Variations, Op 31, Schoenberg's first 12-tone orchestral work, set out the potential of his new technique. Robert Craft conveys the piece with lucid detailing and at the same time manages to highlight its connections with the composer's expressionist past. If you're interested in the Bach orchestrations beware that Craft includes the St Anne Fugue, but not its prelude. www.naxos.com Michael Dervan
