Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Antonin Dvorak, Charles Rosekrans :: Death & the Maiden / American Quartet Scored for String Orchestra [DSD recorded] [Stereo/Multichannel]

A tale of two halves, - one a three star, the other a four

P. SIMPSON | North Yorkshire, United Kingdom | 08/02/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Two great works on this disc, with one emerging stronger as a transcription than the other. The Dvorak is a songful piece which is able to "take" its transcription for string orchestra very well. True, some specific emotions, such as wistfulness become more generalised sentiments, but on the whole the music seems, quite appropriately to "go outdoors" and serenade. At times the beauty of the violins' en masse sheen is quite breathtaking and yet details of tunes being tossed from one instrument to the other still register clearly. The whole piece comes across as a believable piece of music which couild have been written for this body of strings.Sound is very good, and the soundstage is both wide and believable.The Schubert 14th is in many ways a more complex piece (which is not to decry Dvorak's own particular genius in any way) aqnd it has to be said that it loses far more than the Dvorak in transcription, even if the transcription is made, as here by an eminent composer (Mahler). You'd think that Mahler's own searching, neurotic personality would have served Schubert well, but far too much edge and bite are lost, along with menace. Unexpectedly, the quartet is sanitised a little, - and a little counts for a lot with Schubert, especially in this work. Unlike the Dvorak, I never really felt as though this form and sound could ever have been Schubert's intention, notwithstanding the Royal Phil. players' passion.Also unexpectedly, the recording doesn't help. Lower register strings come across far too often as a homogenised growl, rather than a bite, and passing upper register detail gets lost. This isn't the case with the Dvorak, so I have to attribute much of the blame to Gustav. Another problem with the recording is a constant background noise. At first I thought it might be traffic, but its present between movements, too, and is really quite irritating (including in the Dvorak).All in all a curate's egg, - in terms of both transcription and recording. Performances throughout are excellent, but seem more so in the Dvorak than the Schubert because of the transcription and recording.So, the Schubert gets threes all round and the Dvorak four. What I'd like now is for Telarc and other companies to stop playing with noisy toys (interesting and sometimes even lovely though they may be) and start to put great chamber music on SACD as chamber music. Listen to the Hyperion Faure/Ravel/Debussy disc with the Florestan trio to hear just how marvellous chamber music sounds on SACD when played as intended. How about it, Telarc??"