Wer schwelgen möchte: hier ist eine große Gelegenheit! Die Werke von Giovanni...

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy führte ein Leben wie eine Kerze, die von zwei Enden...

[...] Das in Neustadt an der Weinstraße beheimatete Mandelring-Quartett wahrt die Akkuratesse auch im schieren Kontrollverlust, alles gelingt bis zum Bersten emotional, nichts drängt sich dem Hörer als unerwünschte Mitteilung auf.

Die CD-Box dokumentiert in Konzertmitschnitten und Studioproduktionen aus den...

The coupling of works by Giovanni Gabrieli and his star pupil Heinrich Schütz is so self-evidently logical that one is surprised not to find it done more often. This disc (titled “Polychoral Splendour”) alternates seven sacred concerti of the German master with six of the instrumental canzoni and sonatas for brass of his teacher. In addition, these works were recorded in the four galleries of the Abbey Church in Muri, near Basel in Switzerland, to reproduce some of the spatial sonic configurations of the fabled St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice where the two composers labored together. The final draw is the use of SACD recording technology.

The overall result is commendable if not ideal. The Cappella Murensis, consisting of eight members (two sopranos, four tenors, and two basses), is a polished ensemble that has no trouble filling the available acoustic space. Les Cornets Noirs consists of two violins, two violones, two cornetts, six trombones, and four (!) organs; its members play ably and are well balanced with the singers. The SACD recording technology provides some extra amplitude and richness, but I have heard other SACD discs produce considerably more powerful results. The performances are scrupulously clean and stylish, but a little too correct and on the cool side where more fervor is desirable. Complete German-English texts are provided; the booklet thoughtfully also uses a small diagram and coding system to show not only which performers play or sing in which pieces, but also their respective stations inside the abbey church. However, full names are not provided for the abbreviations used to designate singers and instruments; while most can be figured out without any difficulty, it remains a mystery to me exactly what “EpO,” “EvO,” and “TrO” stand for in designating the different organs used. If you want to hear Venetian polychoral splendor in SACD sound and cannot wait, this disc can be safely recommended, but I expect even better to follow soon.

Audite are doing a wonderful exercise of musical archaeology in their series of...

The Mandelring Quartet has received generally favorable reviews in these pages from others and from me. With this disc, the ensemble launches a Mendelssohn cycle titled “Complete Chamber Music for Strings.” In so doing, the players place themselves in direct competition with two of the ensembles that have dominated this field in recent years, the Emerson and Pacifica Quartets.
Still, if Audite lives up to its promise of giving us Mendelssohn’s “complete chamber music for strings,” the Mandelring’s survey will necessitate additional players and encompass not just the quartets, but the string quintets, the octet, the dozen or so fugues for violin, viola, and cello, and a number of rarely heard and, as far as I know, unrecorded pieces, like a Duo in D Minor for Two Violins and an Andante in B♭-Major for Violin and Cello, both listed in the updated 2009 Breitkopf & Härtel Mendelssohn work catalog compiled by Ralf Wehner. I always like to take a little poke at record labels that announce the “complete” anything by anyone. We’ll have to wait and see just how “complete” Audite’s cycle is when it’s finished.
Meanwhile, the Mandelring has included on this first installment the earliest known of Mendelssohn’s string quartets, a work in E♭-Major the composer penned in 1823 at the age of 14, just after completing his 13 string symphonies. The quartet is without opus number and was not published in the composer’s lifetime. Having long been familiar with Mendelssohn’s adolescent precocity from works like the string symphonies, the octet, and the Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream , we no longer express incredulity at it, but what still surprises are the scale and substance of this early string quartet. But for its fairly short fugal finale, the first three movements are lengthier than the corresponding movements in the composer’s first two published quartets which came four and six years later.
Those first two official quartets, as is well known, were published in reverse order, resulting in the E♭-Major work, op. 12, written in 1829, receiving a lower number than the A-Minor score, op. 13, which was written in 1827. But that’s a minor discrepancy, compared to the chronological disconnect between opus numbers and composition dates in Mendelssohn’s work catalog generally.
For the most part, the Mandelring’s readings tend to be less constrained by the bar line than the Emerson’s. There’s a rhythmic freedom to the Mandelring’s playing which both stretches and compresses phrases in ways that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. The little hesitations and pressings forward can be effective. They suggest a degree of spontaneity that’s less evident in the Emerson’s more controlled approach. But at other times, as in bars 9–10 of the Allegro tardante in the op. 12 quartet, as just one example, the quickening of the pace results in rhythmic instability, not to mention that it contravenes Mendelssohn’s “tardante” qualifier, which is taken to mean delaying or holding back.

Another thing that bothers me just a tad is the Mandelring’s tendency to schmaltz things up a bit in slow movements and slower-moving passages with, in my opinion, too many portamentos and a generous application of vibrato. When it comes to the really fast movements, namely the finales of opp. 12 and 13, technically, the Mandelring is no match for either the Emerson Quartet or the astonishing Pacifica Quartet. Coordination among the players is not as tight and, even more displeasingly, their digging in with the bows often turns the tone abrasive and coarse.
The perfect is, as ever, the enemy of the good. In a sea of Mendelssohn string quartet recordings, if the Emerson and Pacifica didn’t exist, the Mandelring would rise to the top of the food chain, but in that ocean there swim more formidable creatures. If having these works in multichannel, surround-sound format is a major incentive for acquiring this release, then you will be happy with your purchase. The recording is exemplary and the performances, despite my nitpicking, are excellent. It’s just that, in my opinion, this first volume in the Mandelring’s cycle does not improve upon either the Emerson’s or the Pacifica’s efforts.

The Mandelring Quartet (Sebastian Schmidt/Nanette Schmidt, violins; Roland...

[…] The young German piano duo Mona and Rica Bard are at the start of what promises to be an outstanding career, having already given many concerts, including orchestral appearances. This is their first CD, and it is fantastic. Programming is imaginative and varied. They capture all of the wild joy of Scaramouche, the mystery of Rapsodie espagnole, and the joy and innocence of the works by Bizet and Poulenc. And their beautiful sound has been wonderfully captured by Audite's engineers, defining but not overly separating the two pianos, with rear channels providing a warm concert hall effect. Highly recommended!

This is only the second single-disc SACD version of Tchaikovky’s A-Minor Piano Trio I’m aware of. It’s a shame, though, that nothing else was included to fill out the disc. Most other recordings of the work find room for one of Rachmaninoff’s “Elegiac” trios or for Shostakovich’s popular E-Minor Piano Trio, either of which makes a fitting companion for the Tchaikovsky and easily fits. There’s no point, however, in bloviating on about this; let the market decide.
In Fanfare 34:6, I had high praise for the Swiss Piano Trio’s Mendelssohn, proclaiming it to be some of the most captivating I’d ever heard. One issue later (35:1), Steven E. Ritter called the Swiss Piano Trio’s Schumann “essential.”
To its rapidly growing discography, the ensemble now adds Tchaikovsky’s lone contribution to the piano trio literature and, based on this performance, it’s tempting to regard the Swiss Piano Trio as the gold standard among today’s active piano trios. It should be noted, however, that even gold is outclassed by platinum, and in this case I would have to say that as exceptional as the Swiss Piano Trio’s Tchaikovsky is, it doesn’t nudge from the top of the precious metals index the phenomenal performance by the young Italian ensemble billing itself the David Trio reviewed in 35:3. At the time that review was submitted, the David’s Stradivarius disc was not yet listed by the major mail order sites, but it is now. If I could pick only one version of Tchaikovsky’s trio to live with for the duration, the David’s would be it. And it should be added that it’s coupled with an equally outstanding performance of Shostakovich’s famous E-Minor Piano Trio.
With the Swiss Piano Trio, you get the Tchaikovsky, and that’s it, though it’s definitely a performance throbbing with Russian pathos and passion that will not disappoint. If having the work in SACD outweighs the short playing time, the extra cost—$19.99 vs. $15.99 for the double-feature David CD—and the even more winning David performance, you won’t go wrong with the Swiss Piano Trio’s very fine effort. Recommended, but not with blaring bugles and rolling drums.