Search - Surinach, Hindemith, Bloch :: New World Composers From the Old World

Potentially a nice concept, though not really consistently c

Discophage | France | 01/30/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It is a nice concept. This 2-disc Vox Box brings together string quartets written by composers born in Old Europe and, at some point in their life, established in the United States. The composition range from 1914 (Stravinsky) to 1975 (Surinach). The concept, though, might have been more consistent had solely pieces actually composed during their American sojourn been chosen. In that respect, Korngold's third quartet (composed in 1943 in Los Angeles) would have been a better choice than his second (Vienna, 1934), and Stravinsky's stark Double Canon should have been preferred to his admittedly more colorful Three Pieces for String Quartet from 1914. As for Tcherepnin's 2nd quartet from 1926 (and not 1927 as the liner notes pretend), written during the composer's Parisian period, it would have been left out and replaced... by nothing else, as Tcherepnin tackled no further string quartet during his American stay, begun in 1949 - so let's be happy with the concept's inconsistencies and welcome what we have (Karel Husa's Pulitzer-winning 3rd quartet from 1968 would have been suitable replacement, though).



The liner notes by the way are very unreliable, wrongly giving 1922 as the date of composition for Stravinsky's work, and then maintaining that it "belongs to the same period as the Symphony of Psalms, performed in 1930". They also gives 1937 as the date of composition for Korngold's quartet and go to great length to establish similarities with the composer's Hollywood film scores, hearing "stylized Negro-spiritual elements in the first and third movements" - very dubious, as Korngold's association with Hollywood began precisely in 1934 (and only by an arrangement of Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream") and really developed from 1935 onwards. Oh well, don't read the notes then, just hear the music, some of it being afforded here a first (Surinach, Tcherepnin, Rozsa and Korngold - the original 3 LP box was recorded and released in 1978) and thus far, for the first two mentioned, only recording. Surinach and Rozsa were still alive when the recordings were made and also when they were reissued on CD, in 1992 (Rozsa died in 1995 and Surinach in 1997).



On the other hand, there are other recordings of some of the pieces featured on the set, usually in collections devoted to their respective composer. The complete Bloch quartets have been recorded by the Portland Quartet (Arabesque) and the Pro Arte Quartet (Laurel), and the latter also did the string quartets of Miklos Rozsa for the same label (see my review). Decca also made available on CD the recording made in the early fifties of what was then Bloch's complete opus in the form (leaving out the 5th) by the Griller Quartet. The Hindemith Quartets were oft recorded, and the complete recordings include those by the Juilliard Quartet (Wergo), the Kocian Quartet (Praga) and the Danish Quartet (CPO). Amazon lists various entries for Korngold's 2nd quartet, including recordings by the Flesch Quartet on ASV (with the first quartet, on volume 1 of a complete recording which also features the string sextet), and Brodsky Quartet (with Kreisler's) on Challenge. There was also another one on Bay Cities, which is not listed.



Most of those quartets are couched in the sort of international, modern but not avant-garde (e.g. twelve-tone) idiom prevalent in the 30s to 50s. Their fast movements (usually 3 out of 4) display raw and biting energy ("Allegro frenetico" is the indication to Surinach's finale, and "Allegro feroce" to Rozsa's, while Bloch starts with an "Allegro deciso" and the word "energetic" characterizes two movements from Hindemith) and their slow movements are 20th century angst-ridden. They are not shy at a fugue or two, either, as Bloch and Hindemith. Those that stand out from this general model are Stravinsky's inimitable, Russian-flavored "3 pieces", and, paradoxically, Korngold's quartet, which to my ears exudes strong whiffs of insouciant Vienna (rather than Hollywood's gaudy view of it, as the notes pretend). Hindemith's late quartet is also very typical of the composer's strong personal voice, and those with a good knowledge of his oeuvre will easily recognize the stylistic traits of his more famous orchestral pieces, stripped down to their bare, string quartet essentials. Tcherepnin's 10 minute quartet is noteworthy for its interesting, tense writing in the violins' upper registers and harmonics.



When possible, comparisons show the interpretations of the New World Quartet to be serviceable but not more. First of all, the sonic atmosphere is dry and lacks brilliance, and the quartet doesn't produce much power. It elicits an atmosphere of small-scaled chamber music, but it's a small chamber, rather like your and my living room. The recording affords good stereo definition, though.



Interpretively, the readings often lack character. In Rozsa's quartet, though the Laurel recording is also far from ideal with its close and congested recording pickup, the competing Pro Arte Quartet plays up the contrasts of tempo and dynamics and produces more high-strung and raw power, at the expense of tonal beauty. By comparison, the New World Quartet homogenizes the music, though their tonal production (helped perhaps by the more distant recording) has more lustre (with beautiful, other-worldly harmonics at the end of an otherwise small-scaled second movement). The same general comments can be made of Hindemith, when compared to the recording by the Danish Quartet, afforded a much roomier sonic surrounding, more powerful in the dramatic movements, more ample and moving in their utterance of the third movement's theme. In Bloch, the New World Quartet is slightly more animated than the staid and harsh-sounding Pro Arte quartet, but not nearly as vigorous as the Portland Quartet, and their recorded sound again lacks brilliance and gives the impression of a small-scale reading. Still their 2nd movement "Adagio non troppo" elicits a commendable, emotionally contained atmosphere, and the 3rd movement's mysterious harmonics at 2:18 have great tonal beauty.



A set then that is interesting more for its concept than the way it is carried out - and of course for the Surinach and Tcherepnin quartets, not available elsewhere.

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