Haydn, the “father of the string quartet”, never wrote a quintet for strings; nor did many classical composers (but Mozart did). As stated in the notes for this release, it was felt that the four instruments could achieve perfect harmony, and a “fifth person” did not add to the conversation. In the romantic era, adding richness to the inner parts was sometimes desired. The greatest quintet, Schubert’s in C, uses two cellos, but the two-viola format, as in Beethoven, Brahms, and Dvorak, is somewhat more common. Mendelssohn’s use two violas.
Quintet 1 bears the opus number 18, though it was in fact composed after Mendelssohn’s great Octet, Op. 20. This quintet is rarely performed, possibly because it is eclipsed by the monumental Octet, but I would not call it a minor work. It is mature, yet youthful in its exuberance. As the notes tell us, Mendelssohn here is “paying tribute to Mozart in tone-color, but thinking harmonically in romantic directions”. Quintet 2 was composed almost 20 years later, and it is full-blown romanticism. It opens with a heroic theme over tremolos, and almost never loses steam. Even III, Adagio, takes full advantage of the five instruments to produce a full-bodied, broad sound. IV sounds almost orchestral. The Pieces for Quartet, Op. 81 are charming minor works discovered and published after the composer’s death.
This is Volume IV in Mandelring’s cycle of Mendelssohn’s complete chamber music for strings. I had the pleasure of reviewing Volume III (Octet, Quartet 5, and Pieces 1+2—May/June 2014), and this volume is also a delight. The Mandelring Quartet has a reputation for a homogeneous tone, and this quality is maintained when the ensemble is augmented (or doubled!). Perfect engineering, good notes. A must-have for lovers of chamber music for strings.

This is the third and final volume in Hans-Eberhard Ross’s recording of the six organ symphonies of Louis Vierne (1870–1937). One of the chief guiding principles of the project is to bring audible clarity to the compositional details of these monumental works. It was no secret that Vierne conceived these works with the instrument and acoustic of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral in mind. Ross counters that dense organ tone and an ultra-reverberant acoustic defeat the clarity of detail that he wishes to convey. He has a point, but I am far from certain that the present recording or its two previous volumes furnish a satisfactory resolution of the dilemma. The instrument here is the four-manual Goll organ (1998) at St Martin’s Church, Memmingen (Bavaria). The tone does not have quite the passionate quality of Cavaillé-Coll at his finest, but it is not worlds removed from that. The church’s foursecond reverberation contributes some warmth but still allows contrapuntal lines and other details to be audible.

Donald Metz reviewed the first volume in the series (Audite 92.674; March/April 2013), and I reviewed the second (92.675; March/April 2014). Our assessments were similar. Metz refers to Ross’s “more clinical approach” in comparison with other performers of this music. In my review of the second volume I thought his judgement perhaps too severe, though I am now inclined to reconsider. In addition to the instrument and the space, Ross sometimes allows a more open articulation than the continuous legato that was standard in the time of the French romantic and postromantic repertory. He also makes some alterations to the composer’s registrations, but I do not find those drastic. The general categories of tone color are observed, but the details always need to be adapted to the particular organ, as no two of them are the same.

The more fully registered passages here seem to me the more persuasive, as they effectively engage the reverberation of the room. The quieter and more lightly registered movements and sections are the ones that sound clinical to me. A good example is the opening movement of Symphony 5. This is a gloomy opening and should sound as if coming to the listener from out of the shadows. Here it is just too matter-of-fact. The clarity turns out to be counterproductive. Much the same could be said of the second movement of Symphony 6 with its troubled, jagged melodies and anguished chromatic harmonies.

I would not describe Ross’s performances in general as mechanical or dispassionate, but they sound as if he is more concerned about getting the notes to flow smoothly—no small feat in these formidably difficult works—than in projecting the expressive qualities of the music. It sounds as if he is so preoccupied with the surface of the music that he never really gets inside so as to convey to the listener what makes it tick. These are very unromantic performances.

Of the Vierne recordings I have encountered recently, the one that has most impressed me is François Lombard’s of Symphony 6 on the three-manual Cavaillé-Coll (1870) at St Peter’s Church, Calais, where he is organist (Motette 13811; Jan/Feb 2014). Not only is his performance wonderfully moving, but the recording proves that it is possible to capture the sound of a romantic organ in a reverberant room without losing most of the musical detail.

Both works are played superbly, and Audite's recording team has captured their sound to perfection.

His Piano Concerto, however, is of crucial importance, and it shares the SACD with the symphony and gets a grand, sweeping and altogether winning performance from Herbert Schuch.

This is the third volume of the Cremona’s Beethoven Quartets. The first installment with Quartets 6, 11, and 16 was reviewed by Greg Pagel (S/O 2013). I took on 8 and 12 (M/J 2014). I felt with 8 and 12, two of Beethoven’s best, that the performances were too direct and uninflected. The players’ technical abilities are first rate, so I was hoping that time and experience would deepen their Beethoven. (The liner notes to the present release liken the Cremona, a young Italian group, to the Quartetto Italiano, and I guess I have to call that premature!)
If there are problems with maturity, they don’t show up in Quartet 4, an enthusiastic, dramatic affair from early in Beethoven’s career. The playing is sharply articulate, enthusiastic, and somewhat Haydnesque—in other words, a fine, outgoing, “young” performance. Some of my characterization of the playing comes from the sonics, which are bright and leave violinist Cristiano Gualco sounding a bit wiry; put another way, the CD hasn’t very much warmth, so this doesn’t sound like a burnished German group.
Quartet 7 (Razoumovsky 1) is nicely done—standard tempos with fine control of the many exposed places. I was particularly pleased that when called for, their playing can be very quiet. Many groups glide over Beethoven’s dynamics and sforzandos, but the Cremona observes them well, bringing interest to the piece without calling undue attention.
As for Quartet 16, the Grosse Fuge, I’m never sure what to say. The piece seems to be overwhelming in its intellect and emotion, but I’m not certain I “get it”. At any rate the Cremona, like most quartets, slash and burn their way through the piece.
In sum I have a better impression of the Cremona in this installment, even if I wouldn’t place them with the Quartetto Italiano quite yet. The bright sound is a small impediment for me, but on different equipment with surround sound it might be perfectly fine.

Audite has remastered the live recording from the original tapes, and has generally done a fine job; and Furtwängler was usually at his best in live performances rather than in the recording studio. So this is a version of the Ninth that is about as good a reflection on Furtwängler and his legacy as anyone is likely to get. [...] It has all the trademarks of intensity and emotional expressiveness associated with Furtwängler, and also his trademark capriciousness with tempos and sometimes even with rhythms.

Den RIAS Kammerchor gibt es genauso wie den Sender nicht mehr. Das Label Audite hat nun aber unter dem Titel „Stille Nacht... Christmas Choir Music“ eine Sammlung von Aufnahmen zusammengestellt, die das Ensemble zwischen 1972 und 1986 unter der Leitung von Uwe Gronostay eingespielt hat. Fast überirdisch schön, wie sie etwa „Maria durch ein Dornwald ging“ oder „In dulce jubilo“ singen.

Eine CD-Reihe zur Geschichte der Luzerner Festspiele bringt das Label Audite...

Eine CD-Reihe zur Geschichte der Luzerner Festspiele bringt das Label Audite...

Eine CD-Reihe zur Geschichte der Luzerner Festspiele bringt das Label Audite...