These congenial pieces make good disc mates.
Both drink deeply of Romantic waters and it is salutary to remember
that although over fifty years separates them in terms of compositional
date Schumann from 1853, Bruch 1908-9 Bruch was already fifteen
when the Marchenerzahlungen were premiered. This was an auspicious
event in a desperate year the premiere was given by Clara Schumann,
the violist Becker and clarinettist Kochner and the last active
creative year of his life. A few days after the score was published,
in February 1854, Schumann flung himself into the Rhine and
endured the torment of the Endenich asylum. Bruchs unfettered
romanticism meanwhile just outlasted the First World War and
he wrote these eight pieces primarily for his clarinettist son
Max Felix though the actual instrumentation seems never to have
been fully determined he intended using a harp at one stage
and alternative more conventional instrumentation was published
for violin, viola and piano. Its premiere was heard by Fritz
Steinbach - the wily Bruch had hoped hed be there and want to
perform them and he was duly impressed writing the composer
an adulatory letter comparing his clarinettist son with Muhlfeld,
of the Meiningen Orchestra, one of the great instrumentalists
of his time. Bruch always advised against playing them together
in concert mainly, one supposes, because of their individual
unity of expression. In fact there is some fine colouristic
writing and much lyrical expressiveness from the clarinet and
viola with the piano assuming its more obvious accompanying
role. Only one has any affinity with folk music, No 5, a Rumanische
Melodie. Of real distinction is the third, an andante con
moto, in which successively viola and then clarinet take turns
with lyrical themes tinged with real depth. I especially admired
violist Vladimir Mendelssohns way with his second theme and
his beautiful exchanges with Michel Lethiecs pellucid clarinet
<sample 1>. The final sonata form Moderato caps this excellent
work, by turns withdrawn, lyrical, and affectionate. Schumanns
cycle of four pieces that comprise the Marchenerzahlungen are
variously animated, gracious and tender. It would taker a hard
heart not to respond to the third of them <sample 2> a
gorgeously affecting duet for viola and clarinet with an articulate
piano accompaniment that is beautifully played here. The pieces
are well balanced, from the dreamy first and the insistent clarinet-led
scherzo-like second through the tender third to the triumphant
concluding Lebhaft complete with its contrastive little
central section. Truly musical performances from all three players
never over assertive or feyly withdrawn but instead distinctively
alive to all the moods of these engaging pieces.
Jonathan Woolf
Michel Lethiec,
clarinet 