Page 86 - BBC Music (January 2020)

Chamber Reviews
Telemann
Telemann’s Garden: Fantasia
No. 7 in A minor – Lentement;
Suite No. 5 in A minor; Fantasia
No. 9 in B minor – Siciliana;
Paris Quartet No. 3 in G;
Fantasia No. 1 in A minor; Trio
Sonata No. 10 in A minor;
Solo Sonata No. 9 in E minor –
Recitativo & Arioso
Elephant House Quartet
Pentatone PTC 5186 749 58:56 mins
The title of this
disc salutes
Telemann’s love of
flowers. In August
1742 he wrote to a
fellow musician,
Johann Friedrich von Uffenbach,
expressing his passion for hyacinths,
tulips, ranunculi and in particular,
anemones. Elephant House Quartet
have chosen a programme to reflect
the imagined colours and fragrances
of Telemann’s garden.
The music is drawn from the five
collections of instrumental music
that Telemann published in a period
between c1726 and 1738. It need not
worry us, unduly, that two of the
works here were written expressly
for the transverse flute, since Bolette
Roed is an outstanding recorder
player. Her accomplished technique
and musical empathy ensure
fluency and stylistic propriety in the
DARIO ACOSTA, J. HENRY FAIR et Six Suites of 1734 and the G major
A minor Suite from the Six Concerts
Quartet from the Parisian Nouveaux
Quatuors of 1738. The third piece
of substance is the A minor Trio
Sonata for recorder and violin from
88 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
subtle and many-shaded pieces, rich Biographical
in harmony and quietly engaging; fact: Mathilde,
Maximum tension: John Corigliano’s Soliloquy is a
Tesla Quartet bring Schoenberg’s
colour to Corigliano searingly emotional work written in first wife and
1995 in memory of the composer’s Zemlinsky’s sister,
late father. Carolina Heredia’s Ius had an affair with
in Bello, which dates from 2014, is a a young painter, Richard Gerstl, who
politically-inspired work (the title committed suicide when she finally
means ‘law of war’) driven primarily rejected him. While Schoenberg’s
by events in Venezuela, but it works Second String Quartet of 1908 was
convincingly as ‘pure’ music. written while all this was happening,
The performances sometimes the booklet note honestly concedes
live up to their promise. Both the that there’s no clear evidence of a
contemporary pieces are well served, similar connection in Zemlinsky’s
the ensemble finely navigating (later) Second Quartet, let alone in
their pace, offering plenty of colour Webern’s (earlier) Langsamer Satz
and achieving maximum tension (Slow Movement). The justification
in the agonising Soliloquy. The isn’t needed anyway: Schoenberg’s
Mozart, though, suffers from an quartet, with a soprano voice in
imbalance between the unshakable its last two movements, is one
clarinet and the wispy first violin of his supreme achievements,
– one suspects from conflicting while Zemlinsky’s 40-minute,
interpretations rather than the single-movement creation is a
placement of microphones. Imagine neglected masterwork.
the line of a blue felt pen beside It’s therefore unfortunate that
Telemann’s anthology Essercizii that of a 2H pencil. It is fine to play the playing style here – technically
musici, long thought to have been Mozart in what might for some superb as such, but also insistently
published in about 1740 but now reason be considered an idiomatic hard-edged, with exaggerated,
known to belong to an earlier 18th-century style without any effect-conscious contrasts of volume
period, c1726. strength of tone, but not if a strong and tone – is so inappropriate to
The remaining pieces are modern clarinettist is doing strong the music itself, with close and dry
movements from the Fantasias modern clarinet playing alongside. recorded sound making the situation
for solo harpsichord, solo violin, This performance remains as a worse. Of course convincing
solo flute, and another for viola whole rather earthbound. The Finzi alternatives can be found to the
da gamba from Essercizii musici. is more convincing and is presented soft-grained, pliable Viennese sound
The warm rapport of this Quartet with a more homogeneous tone, but the composers themselves knew
with Telemann’s deftly crafted and here the two violinists have switched and reckoned on. The in-your-face
idiomatic instrumental writing places. Sound recording is warm manner of these performances isn’t
ensures an hour of uninterrupted and clear. Jessica Duchen one of them. A non-vibrato-then-
pleasure. Regrettably three of these PERFORMANCE HHH vibrato mannerism, replicated in
four solo items have been limited RECORDING HHHH phrase after phrase to the point
to a single movement. Why not let of cliché (as at the start of the
us hear the complete works? They The Mathilde Album Zemlinsky), is especially dislikeable;
are not long and there was plenty of Schoenberg: String Quartet it also detracts from Elsa Dreisig’s
space for them. Nicholas Anderson No. 2*; Webern: Langsamer Satz; beautiful soprano tone and fine
PERFORMANCE HHHH Zemlinsky: String Quartet No. 2 technical control. Malcolm Hayes
RECORDING HHHH *Elsa Dreisig (soprano); Quatuor Arod PERFORMANCE HH
Erato 9029542552 80:26 mins RECORDING HH
Joy & Desolation
Corigliano: Soliloquy; Finzi: Five
Bagatelles; C Heredia: Ius in Bello;
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet
Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet), BACKGROUND TO…
Tesla Quartet John Corigliano (b1938)
Orchid Classics ORC 100106 63:38 mins
Rather than One of America’s most successful living
splitting hairs composers, Corigliano has over 100 works to
on whether the his credit. His First Symphony, which won him a
Mozart Clarinet Grammy (the first of four) in 1992, was written
Quintet is really for the Chicago Symphony – Corigliano was its
first ever composer-in-residence. His Second
joyful, let’s
leapfrog over this album’s slightly Symphony won him a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, just
misleading title and note that Original Score for The Red Violin. As a teacher, Corigliano continues to
a year or so after taking home the Oscar for Best
Fiterstein and the Tesla Quartet have
serve on the faculty at both Juilliard and New York’s Lehman College;
assembled an unusual programme
his past students include Mason Bates, Nico Muhly and Eric Whitacre.
of highly contrasted works that is
very effective. Finzi’s Bagatelles are