Alan Bush: Dialectic

Day 362

Alan Bush: Dialectic

Aeolian Quartet

Alan Bush is remembered as much for his communist associations as for his music. All four of his full length operas were given their first performance in East Germany. I love the story - which I think is true - that after the first performance of his piano concerto, which ends with a chorus singing revolutionary Leninist texts, the conductor Adrian Boult immediately launched the orchestra into the national anthem in order to stop the applause of the mainly left-wing audience!

Dialectic was the piece which made Bush’s reputation. It was written in 1929 and achieve international recognition when it was performed at the Prague festival in the 1930s.  It is about as far from agit-prop as you can imagine. It is a serious one-movement work for string quartet which explores at length an opening motive which permeates the whole piece. It is largely contrapuntal and has moments of tremendous rhythmic energy. It is unlike most of the inter-war British music that I know. The composer who most comes to mind is Tippett, but in 1929 Tippett was still finding his feet musically and any influence there is is in the other direction, something Tippett himself acknowledged.

This was a very old recording transferred from 78s (there are modern recordings but this one is on YouTube with the score) and so so of the details were probably a bit muddy. But it certainly was good enough to show that this is fine piece which deserves to be part of the quartet repertory.

Lekeu: Piano quartet

Day 352

Lekeu: Piano quartet in B minor

Quatuor Kandinsky

Lekeu was one of the great hopes of music who died young before he could achieve full artistic maturity. He was only 24 when he died. This piano quartet dates from the very end of his life and is unfinished. He only completed the first movement and though there is a completion of the second movement by D’Indy. This recording was of the first movement only. 

This is a typical piece of overheated late 19th century French chamber music, very much in the tradition of César Franck and his school. Had the work been completed it would have been a substantial addition to the repertoire and would probably have tested the stamina of performers and audiences alike. As it there was some attractive music here but I though that it was over written and at times the piano was in danger of overwhelming the string instruments. That’s not an uncommon fault in a young person’s music and no doubt had Lekeu reached maturity he would have developed a greater command of his material and learned the benefits of concision. 

So an interesting example of ‘what might have been’. I don’t know that it stands as a piece worth listening to frequently in its own right.

Lutyens: String trio

Day 330

Elizabeth Lutyens: String trio op 57

Endymion ensemble

Elizabeth Lutyens was one of the first English composer to embrace serialism - in fact she claimed that she had independently discovered serialism technique without any influence from the second Viennese school. She seems to have been a difficult individual to cope with and she was not popular within the English musical community - in return she was the person who christen the pastoral music of the English tradition’ the cowpat school’.

Webern is the obvious influence on this string trio from 1963 - indeed on the page the score looks almost exactly like a late Webern piece. In fact it is slightly more lyrical and less disjointed than Webern’s music. I found the first four movements quite attractive but the longer (comparatively - this is not a long piece) - last movement seemed much tougher and aggressive. 

Lutyens made a living from writing scores for horror films. I don’t think that I have seen of them - perhaps I will make a point of watching one of them next time it is film night.

Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit

Day 323

Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit for String Quartet

Belcea Quartet

Although I knew the name I don’t think that I have heard anything by Dutilleux before. This piece is a work for string quartet dating from 1976/77. The title translates as thus the night. It is in  seven movement separated by four brief interludes. The whole work lasts no longer than 20 mins or so. Judging by the number of recording of the piece it had become a classic of the modern string quartet repertory. I didn’t have a score so couldn’t study the music in detail but on a purely aural basis it made quite an impression. The style is partly post-Webern but is less fragmented that much of the music of the 1970s. It would be wrong to call it lyrical but it certainly has a shape to it and the textures are constantly interesting without being aggressively extreme. All in all this was a good piece to have discovered and I will certainly put the composer down as somebody whose music I should get to know better.

Hummel: Two Piano trios

Day 308

Hummel: Two Piano trios

Trio in E flat op 12

Trio in E flat op 96

Beaux Art Trio

Hummel was at the centre of musical life in Vienna in the transition from the classical to romantic eras. He seems to have know every important composer of his time and his music, particularly the works for piano (solo and orchestra) had an influence on the next generation of pianist composers such as Chopin and Schumann,

The only piece of his that I have played orchestral is the trumpet concerto, though I have attempted a few of his easier piano pieces. But he is not a composer whose music I know well.  He wrote seven piano trios and selected two of them at random. These are very much transitional works. For much of the time the cello takes a subsidiary part, as it does in the piano trios of Haydn, doubling the bass line of the piano and adding harmonic fill. But there are also some passages where the cello is given an independent voice with equal status to the violin. Both trios are extremely well crafted and show why Hummel was much admired in his day. Interestingly the earlier trio (op 12) seems a much more mature work that the later op 96, but as far as I can tell the opus numbers are chronological. Certainly the first movement of op 12 looks forward to Schumann - the main melodic material was reminiscent of the latter composer’s Piano Quintet. Buy contrast the final movement of op 96 - a spirited rondo - seemed a very close relation to Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca. So some highly civilised music here which shows the piano trio format at its most elegant and refined.

Babbitt: String Quartet no 2

Day 300

Milton Babbitt: String quartet no 2 

Unknown performer

Milton Babbitt is one of those rather formidable academic American serialists who seem to have dominated music in the US in the late 20th century. I can’t recall ever having heard any of his music before.

I had expected to find this completely unapproachable but in fact I did find quite a lot to appreciate here. The style is largely post-Webern but it had a rhythmic vitality that I don’t associate with that composer. Babbitt ability to create a dialogue based on a two note phrase brings an energy to the quartet. Unexpectedly I was occasional reminded of Tippett in a couple of places. So I was pleased to have sampled this music though I don’t suppose I will be returning to it any time soon.

Ferneyhough: String quartet no 3

Day 299

Ferneyhough: String quartet no 3

Arditti String quartet

Ferneyhough’s music has the reputation of being some of the most complex and knotty music ever written. In particular his rhythms are quite extraordinary - the notation almost belies belief. Almost every bar has cross rhythms and mathematically intricate subdivisions. How on earth anybody can play this music is a mystery though there are plenty of groups who are willing to take on the challenge.

I can’t say that this is was easy to listen to - at times the very high loud violin writing grated on the ear. But there was still much that was fascinating in the score - his ear for sonorities is astonishing. I don’t suppose that I would ever willingly sit down and listen to the entire series of quartets but I am glad that I dipped my toes into this music.

Soulima Stravinsky: String quartet no 1

Day 214

Soulima Stravinsky: String quartet no 1

Quatuor de Calarmont 

Soulima Stravinsky was the third child of Stravinsky and his first wide. I knew that he was a pianist - he made some recordings with his father and separately of his father’s music but somehow I had only thought that he wrote pedagogical music for children. I got that wrong because he did write some other music including three string quartets.

I really enjoyed this first quartet - it would stand on its own regardless of the family connection. It is in three quite short movements, well constructed with a clear musical argument. I would describe the idiom as like mild Prokofiev with a touch of French overlay. It uses ostinato techniques very effectively and has some attractive textural effects, include some interesting use of harmonics.  All in all a good piece which many more famous composers would have been pleased to have written.

Crawford Seeger: String quartet

Day 194

Ruth Crawford Seeger: String quartet

Amati String Quartet

Ruth Crawford, who married Charles Seeger and was the mother of Peggy Seeger the folk music specialist, was one of the most important modernist female composers in the USA in the early part of the 20th century (1901-1953). She underwent a rigorous training and was in contact with many of the leading musical figures of her time. I've never heard any of her music before so this quartet, which dates from 1931 and is acknowledged as one of her most important pieces, seemed a good place to start.

My initial impression was not that positive. I thought that the first movement was fairly anonymous in a broadly Schoenberg/Berg idiom which seemed rather to meander along. It to me had no rhythmic impetus - a feature which I certainly feel was a problem of a lot of the 2nd Viennese School's music. But the second movement had much more of interest. It sprung to life rhythmically and had an energy about it - indeed at times it almost seemed to be looking forward to the sort of rhythmic vitality that Tippett was to explore a few years later. The slow third movement was fascinating. Essentially it was a study in resonance, almost entirely consisting of long notes but with lots of small crescendos and diminuendos but at time times in different instruments - it created a really haunting effect. Seeger suggested that it could be performed by a string orchestra as an alternative to a quartet and I can imagine it making a real impression done that way.  The last movement was also distinctive. This involved quite harsh recitative-like passages in the first violin contacted with arpeggio figures in unison quavers played by the three other players with mutes on. The very end was a little abrupt.

So this was a work which grew in interest as it went on - only tailing off a little towards the end. There was nothing particularly American in the piece as far as I could hear but Crawford clearly had a distinctive voice. From the mid 1930s she seems to have devoted most of her energies to folk song collecting, editing and dissemination. One wonders what she might have written had she written further string quartets into the 1940s and 1950s.

Ives: String quartet no 2

Day 188

Ives: String quartet no 2

Emerson Quartet

I’ve now reached the halfway point in this project and so far haven’t missed a day. When I started I didn’t have much idea of how I was going to organise things. The first few weeks’ pieces were chosen largely at random but then I started to think in terms of topics. I’ve tried to fit round my working schedule so that some days of the week have the space for longer works whereas on others I only have time for short pieces. I didn’t plan that each piece would be by a different composer but having got this far with a different composer every day I will try to continue to chose a new composer every day - I don’t think that there is any chance to running out of names.

My new topic is experimental music by American composers in the early part of the 20th century - something of which I have only a limited experience.  I start with Charles Ives. I know quite a few of his orchestral pieces but the only one I have played is the 3rd symphony, which is probably one of the most straightforward of his works.

I’d never heard either of the Ives string quartets. This second one is an intriguing piece. It starts out in a broadly Schoenberg-like idiom not sounding much like Ives but gradually some of Ives’ typical characteristics - polyrhythms and popular melodies - start to emerge out the texture. The three movements all have titles Discussions; Arguments; the Call of the Mountains. The middle movement is probably the most experimental. The instruments are pitched against each other in a loud aggressive argument with some very complex cross rhythms where the bar lines don’t coincide. This is extraordinary music for the early years of the 20th century. The movement ends with what is now one of my favourite musical expressions :"Andante con scratchy (as tuning up)", followed by a final fff eruption marked "Allegro con fistiswatto (as a K.O.)".

The last movement is more lyrical though still highly rhythmically and harmonically complex. It ends with a really beautiful expressive passage - if there was ever any doubt that Ives could write ‘proper’ music this coda removes any such doubts. I can’t imagine that the work will be performed very often - it must be incredibly difficult to play. Ives is such an interesting composer - he seemed to anticipate so many later musical developments (though there are some theories that he added modernist touches to pieces many years after they were written). He was in many ways the spiritual godfather of a whole group of American experimental composers - some of whom I will be exploring in the next few days.

Glazunov: String quartet no 4

Day 116

Glazunov: String quartet no 4

Utrecht string quartet

This is the last in this small series of chamber music from the post-Tchaikovsky generation of Russian composers.  Glazunov is a composer that I have a little experience of. I conducted his saxophone concerto a few years ago and I recall hearing the violin concerto, but other than perhaps the odd ballet extract I don't think I have heard anything more.

I chose this quartet at random from the seven he wrote: I don't know if I was particularly lucky but I thought that this was an absolutely delightful piece. By some distance it was the most enjoyable of all of the Russian quartets I have been listening to in this sequence.  The music flowed naturally and Glazunov was in complete control of his material. All of the movements were highly attractive but perhaps the highlight was the sherzo-like third movement which had a Mendelssonian lightness of touch and an irresistible charm.

The harmonic language is relative conservative for a piece written in 1894 - there's nothing much here that Schumann couldn't have written - but from a distance now of over 130 years that hardly matters. Quality is what counts and this quartet has it in abundance.

So my exploration of Russian chamber music comes to a halt, at least for now. Next I will be listening to some American symphonies.

Taneyev: String quartet no 5

Day 115

Taneyev: String quartet no 5 op 13

Carpe Diem String Quartet

Taneyev is another of those composers from the generation between Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. He was a close associate of Tchaikovsky (he played the solo part in the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto in Moscow) but was also a merciless critic and had no hesitation in pointing out what he considered to be defects in Tchaikovsky’s music. He was a noted teacher, with Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Glière among his pupils. He also published an exhaustive 2-volume study of renaissance and baroque counterpoint.  I knew the name but I don’t recall consciously listening to any of his music before.

He completed 9 string quartets and left two more unfinished. I chose this one at random. It is a curious work. It has much of the spirit of Haydn - indeed if you ignore the harmony much of it looks like Haydn on the page - the second subject of the first movement and the very end are two good examples of this. But harmonically I found it quite hard to follow. Some of it was straightforwardly tonal in a way that would have been familiar to Tchaikovsky or Brahms but in other places the harmony veered off in strange directions. It was never overtly dissonant let alone atonal, but it did seem directionless and ultimately quite disconcerting - the slow movement especially seemed to wander along getting nowhere. 

The scherzo worked best I think, Here the feeling of Haydn was at its strongest - indeed if the first 20 or so bars have been dropped into a late Haydn quartet I don’t think anybody would have noticed. And later in the movement we got some hints of Taneyev’s skill at counterpoint.  

So overall not a particularly satisfying experience - there was clearly a strong musical mind at work here but somehow it didn’t all jell together.  Perhaps my random choice was unfortunate but it didn’t make me want to listen to more Taneyev straight away.

Arensky: String quartet no 2

Day 114

Arensky: String quartet no 2

Spectrum concerts Berlin

Arensky is of the generation between Tchaikovsky/The Five and Stravinsky’s. This is a period in Russian musical history that I know little about - in fact I don’t think that I have heard anything by Arensky before.  This quartet is an interesting piece. First of all it is for the unusual combination of one violin, one viola and two cellos. I am not aware of any other piece using these four instruments. It does give the piece a darker hue in places although it also means that the viola part is often very high in order to give more emphasis in the treble register. I had assumed that at some point Arensky would use the two cellos together in a lyrical duet in the matter of the Schubert Quintet but that point never arrived. Indeed Arensky later restored the piece for a conventional string quartet so clearly the two cellos were not absolutely fundamental to the piece.

The other interesting feature is the use of traditional Russian melodies. It opens with a funeral chant and ends with the same folk song that is used in Beethoven’s 2nd Rasumovsky quartet and Boris Godunov. The middle movement is a set of variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky, which is sometimes performed separately as a piece for string orchestra.. Arensky was a great, if critical, admire of Tchaikovsky and taken together this features are thought to be a tribute to Tchaikovsky as the Tsar of music.

The music is lyrical and full of contrast. I enjoyed it immensely though I did wonder whether the structure worked fully. The last movement seems quite brief after the long set of variations and seems to finish almost before it has started. But that is a small shortcoming. I look forward to hearing more of his music and indeed that of his contemporaries.

Kodály: String quartet no 2

Day 113

Kodály: String quartet no 2

Kodály Quartet

I don’t know much about Kodály. I know the Háry János suite and the solo cello sonata but that it about it. This is the second of the composer’s two string quartets - it dates from 1916-18. It is in two movements but those movements contain more or less independent sections and therefore it has much of the effect of a full four-movement work. The best way of describing it is probably as a milder version of Bartók. It has many of the same characteristics but Kodály does not explore the extremes which his compatriot went to in his string quartets.

The most Hungarian sounding music in in the last movement where the composer introduces modal folk-like tunes over drones - this is highly effective and is the most striking part of the work. Elsewhere there is obvious control of the form and texture without, to my ear, ever quite presenting a compelling case for the work at the highest level. Early commentators were apparently divided between those who through the music too modern and those who thought it not modern enough. I can quite understand how they came to feel that way.

So I am glad that I have heard the piece but perhaps the other quartet can wait - there’s plenty of other music to go at first.

Enescu: Octet

Day 112

Enescu: Octet

Gringolts quartet and Met4

Casals described Enescu as the 'greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart'. Menuhin, who recorded the Bach Double Violin concerto with Enescu, described him as 'the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most formative influence he had ever experienced'. Quite a tribute.

The only music of his that I can ever recall hearing is the first of his two Romanian rhapsodies, which is a great orchestral showpiece though I don't know how typical of his work its. His masterpiece is generally reckoned to be the opera Œdipe, which is a piece that is on my list to hear one day.

This string octet is an early work, dating from 1900 when the composer was 19. It is a far heavier, more symphonic, work than the Glière I listened to yesterday. It lasts about 40 mins without a break and must put huge demands on the players: indeed the first performance and several of the available recordings were done with a conductor. Enescu recognised this and approved performances with a full string orchestra.

The opening is very compelling - a wide ranging theme in unison by seven of the players against a throbbing pedal note in the 2nd cello. That material returns in various guises throughout the piece. I don't anything else in score quite comes up to the impact of that opening but there was nevertheless much to admire, and enjoy, here. The young composer clearly wanted to try out as many different possibilities as possible with this large group and the textures are endlessly fascinating, though as we saw yesterday in the Glière sometimes the need to keep all of the instruments busy does lead to some very thick textures at times.

It is quite difficult to describe the style. Certainly some of it is in what you might call an overheated late romantic style and at times the language was not a million miles away from Verklärte Nacht, which was written at more or less the same time. But there are also echos of Richard Strauss and César Franck. No doubt Enescu was tying to work out his own idiom within the prevailing musical climate of the time.

This is an impressive piece and a quite remarkable achievement for a 19 year old. I'm not really sure why Enescu didn't go on to become one of the major composer of the first half of the 20th century. Perhaps he was but we haven't yet realised it.

Glière: String Octet

Day 111

Glière: String Octet

Berlin Philharmonic String Octet

After several, very pleasant, days of the Strauss family time to change direction. So for the next few days I am going to be exploring more chamber music, this time from Russian and Eastern Europe. I know a few of the more famous pieces in this repertory but generally this is not an area which I have explored very much.  This Octet, my starting point, was suggested by our splendid principal cellist Anthony Desbrulais. My knowledge of Glière is very slight. I did one of his shorter piano pieces for a grade exam at school and I knew the Russian Sailor's Dance. I think that as one time I heard the concerto for Coloratura soprano and orchestra but that's about it.

I was expecting a piece of brightly coloured Soviet style propaganda but this was very different. It is an early piece (written as a student and completed in 1902 when he was in his mid twenties) and is in what was for the time a rather conservative idiom. Heard cold one might have attributed it to Borodin but with occasional overtones of Dvořák and Tchaikovsky - it is certainly in the romantic tradition. I enjoyed it immensely and was very impressed with the melodic freshness and the attractive part writing. Glière handles the 8 instruments well and there are only a few passages where one feels he was thickening out the texture to give everybody something to play. Perhaps the second movement is the highlight - a scherzando movement (though not a particularly fast one) with folk song overtones and some unexpected rhythmic twist.

Glière lived on to the age of 80, well into the Soviet era but seems to have escaped the attentions of the Russian authorities , unlike Shostakovich and others, and was left alone to write increasingly anachronistic colourful pieces celebrating Russian life.  But this piece shows that there is more to him that the conformist hack that I had taken him to be.

Milhaud: String quartets no 14 and 15

Day 99

Milhaud: String quartets no 14 and 15

Parisii quartet

Manfred quartet

I know the famous Milhaud pieces but there a huge amount more to go at - his opus numbers go up to 443.  There are 18 string quartets alone. Most famous among them are no 14 and 15 which are separate pieces but which can be played together as a string octet. I’ve been intrigued by what this/they might be like but I have never listened to them until now.

I quite enjoyed the first movement of the 14th quartet - it reminded me of early Tippett in its harmonic language and melodic shape though it doesn’t have Tippett’s rhythmic flare. But it was rather downhill from there - the more I listened the more it did seem rather like fairly aimless note spinning. The textures are quite clogged and although there is (perhaps mercifully) little of Michaud’s propensity for polytonality there is no real sense of harmonic roots. The 15th quartet had many of the same characteristics , including some very high lines for the first violin which got rather painful at time.

But of course the real interest is what the two quartets sound like played together as an octet. Pretty awful is the answer. if the textures in each separate quartet are clogged then putting the two together resulted in what was little more than an aural mess. It became quite painful at time. One had the mental image of eight players each struggling to be heard and holding on for dear life against seven colleagues who often seemed to be ploughing their own furrow 

I had assumed that Milhaud would have used the contrasting quartets to create interesting textures and antiphonal effects but such moments are quite rare - there were perhaps some in the slow movement where Milhaud did seem to take advantage of the unusual format he had devised. But generally I couldn’t see that this was anything more than an interesting experiment than anything of real musical value. A review in Gramophone magazine described the piece as a ‘real stinker’: I’m inclined to agree with him.

 So I doubt that I will be exploring any more Milhaud.Auric is the only one of Les Six left to complete the collection.

Tailleferre: String quartet

Day 98

Tailleferre: String quartet

Leipzig String Quartet

This continues my exploration of string quartets by moving across to France. The difference in style is immediate. The melodic shape is generally much simpler, the textures are more inventive and the harmonic language is more piquant. The work itself is curiously unbalanced. The first two movement are quite brief and as light as air. But the third movement is as long as the previous two movement put together and much more serious in tone - it is more dissonant and experiments with bitonality in places. I sense that this was not her natural style and that her real voice is to be heard in the first two movements, but the only other piece of hers I have heard is the harp concerto, so perhaps that is to oversimplify matters.

Tailleferre was of course one of Les Six. I’ve already covered Poulenc, Honneger and Durey in this series so it is just Milhaud and Auric to go. I will try to pick a piece by each of them over the next couple of days. There is a huge amount of Milhaud to go at, but Auric’s concert music is quite limited. Still there are some songs and perhaps I will explore them.

Gade: String quartet no 1

Day 97

Gade: String Quartet no 1 in D major op 63

Copenhagen string quartet

This was a lovely piece. Quite short and understated but a real pleasure to listen to. Gade was Danish but I can't say I detected any Nordic influences. This was a very much characteristic of the Leipzig school with Mendelssohn and Schumann the obvious influences. This is hardly surprising as Gade conducted the first performances of both the Mendelssohn violin concerto and the Schumann piano concerto.

The music flows freely and without any obvious effort - the scherzo second movement was particularly enjoyable with fast semi-quaver interchanges between pairs of instruments - it must be fun to play. The coda was very neat and raised a smile. Perhaps only the last movement was a slight let down. It was the most symphonic of the four movement and there was perhaps a feeling that Gade thought that he should 'up his game' and show how serious a musician he was. I don't think that there was any need for that and at times the music did seem a bit strained.  But all in all a work I was very happy to have heard.  I don't think that I have heard any Gade before. His music does turn up in second-hand bookshops occasionally as his oratorio The Earl King's Daughter did have quite a vogue in Victorian England. His overture based on Ossian is supposed to be worth hearing so perhaps I will dig that out.

Brahms: String quartet no 3

Day 95

Brahms: String quartet no 3 in B flat major op 67

Artemis Quartet

Brahms has always been a complete mystery to me. I simply do not understand why he is ranked among the great composers. I've never found a way to make any sense of his music. Over the years I have played almost all of the orchestral works and while they are highly enjoyable as pieces to perform - he really knows how to to use the Contrabassoon - I don't find being in the middle of the music brings any greater appreciation. There are some beautiful moment of course, but to me nothing really fits together. Melodies start well but peter out and to me all to often the music drifts without any real sense of purpose. I know that these are heretical views and that for many Brahms is revered for his melodic gifts and sense of form. Perhaps one day all will become clear - though I played the 2nd symphony only a couple of weeks ago and I still felt very much the same.  Still I am not entirely alone in feeling this about Brahms - Tchaikovsky and Britten, to name only two composers, were very scathing indeed in what they said about his music.

I think at some stage years ago I might have heard this string quartet, when I was making an effort to get to know Brahms, but if I did I don't remember any of it.  Listening to it today brought back all of my feelings about the composer. Some attractive parts but nothing seemed to hang together and all too often the sense of line was interrupted. One of my biggest bugbears about Brahms is the constant interaction between 3/4 and 6/8 - he seems unable to stick to one or the other for any extended length of time. That was certainly true here and it continued to irritate me!  The last movement is in variation form - so at least it was possible to follow what he was trying to do. But towards the end there is a sudden intrusion of the opening material of the first movement.  I can see on paper that he was trying to show that there was some commonality in the shape of that material and his variation theme, but as a purely aural experience it just jarred.

So this was not the moment when I had a revelation from on high and the greatness of Brahms revealed itself to me - perhaps it will happen one day. After all, as I have mentioned here, it did with Handel and Rameau. But time is running out..........