César Franck (1822-1890)
Le temps retrouvé
String Quartet in D major (1889-90)
Piano Quintet in F minor (1879)
Eliot Quartett
Dmitry Ablogin (piano)
rec. 2021, Südwestrundfunk, SWR Studio Kaiserslautern, Germany
GENUIN GEN22784 [82]
Le temps retrouvé (Time Regained or The Past Recaptured) is the title of the last section of Proust’s great novel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, for whose title in English I continue to prefer the Shakespearean Remembrance of Things Past to the literal translation which has replaced it in recent printings. Its relevance to this disc is that Proust, who was musically well-informed, invited the Quatuor Poulet to his flat to play the Franck string quartet to him twice over. Although Franck is hardly mentioned in the novel, Proust was clearly very fond of the work, as indeed am I: I think it is the finest nineteenth century string quartet apart from Beethoven, and for me it is a desert island work.
Franck matured late as a composer, and only three works of chamber music belong to this period: the two recorded here and the Violin Sonata. The Violin Sonata is perhaps the most popular of all Franck’s works and is constantly recorded. By contrast, the other two works here seem to be more popular with musicians than with the public; they are occasionally recorded but the recordings tend not to stay around for long. Both are substantial – the quartet runs to forty-five minutes – and it is unusual for them to be accommodated together on one disc. The very fine versions by the Ysaÿe Quartet with Pascal Rogé, for example, run to two discs, though with the Violin Sonata added in. You can see from the playing time that this disc offers really good value.
Although the two works are placed in reverse chronological order on the disc, I shall start with the Piano Quintet. Martin Cooper thought this Franck’s first completely mature production. It has proved controversial from the first, with Franck’s wife disliking it and Saint-Saëns, who played the piano at the premiere, apparently rejecting the dedication. (The booklet suggests that Franck had become infatuated with his pupil, the composer Augusta Holmès.) The reason for the controversy is the highly chromatic nature of the writing, which derives partly from Wagner’s Tristan, and which some found too erotic. The texture is rich and the piano writing very full, making the whole work too elaborate for some people. However, I find it a great success. There are three movements. The first movement begins with peremptory strings, answered by poetic writing for the piano, and a dialogue ensues. The ensemble here take care not to overstate and they observe the many passages marked piano or pianissimo though at the big climax marked fff dramatico they rightly give it all they’ve got. The slow movement has a meditative withdrawn quality and the finale is fiery, with frequent alternation between major and minor, a device Franck learned from Beethoven.
The Piano Quintet is a fine work; the String Quartet is even finer. It is in four movements and the beauty of the themes and the interest of their working out make it an absorbing experience to listen to. It is written using Franck’s cyclic principle, in which themes can recur in all the movements, though often considerably modified. The first movement has an extended slow introduction before moving to Allegro, and it reverts to a slower tempo twice more. However, the flow of ideas is continuous. The second movement is Mendelssohnian fairy music, though with some powerfully expressive modulations. This is the movement I would play to someone who was doubtful about the work. The slow movement is in a similar mood to that of Franck’s symphony and is predominantly quiet and lyrical with one big climax. The finale begins with a fiery passage which is broken off, before Franck adopts the device, used by Beethoven in his ninth symphony, of calling up ghosts of the previous movements before settling down to an Allegro molto in a modified rondo form. The opening theme of the work is recalled before the end.
The Eliot Quartett is a new ensemble to me but they have already won several international prizes. They are based in Frankfurt but took their name from the poet T. S. Eliot, whose masterpiece Four Quartets pays homage in its title to Beethoven’s late quartets. These two works are slightly off the mainstream for string quartets, and ensembles only take them up if they are really committed to them. The Eliots offer splendid performances, carefully thought out, well articulated performances and they rightly resist the temptation to go hell for leather in all the strenuous passages. They occasionally use portamento, as for example in their opening phrases of the quartet, which is in style for the work. The pianist in the Piano Quintet, Dmitry Ablogin, is also based in Frankfurt and works regularly with the quartet.
The recording, made by Südwestrundfunk, is fine and the booklet helpful. There are other good recordings; favourites of mine are the Ysaÿe as I have mentioned, in both works, with Collard and the Muir Quartet in the Piano Quintet and the original Fitzwilliam Quartet in the quartet, but these performances can certainly hold their own. Strongly recommended.
Stephen Barber
Eliot Quartett: Maryana Osipova and Alexander Sachs (violins), Dmitry Hahalin (viola), Michael Preuß (cello)
Published: November 9, 2022
