An inspired coupling
from Arco Diva.
The Pfitzner is an
impressive work. Its first movement
is highly expressive and includes some
distinctly Schoenbergian gestures; try
around 4'40. The young Wihan Quartet
employs exquisite shading during the
course of the music's expressive wanderings.
The music tapers to nothing before the
energetic Scherzo ('Sehr Schnell') bursts
upon the scene. The Wihan play this
beautifully, the music shifting unpredictably.
Perhaps the ostinati could be more frenetic
- there should be a late-Beethovenian
edge here - but the cheeky end almost
compensates.
The slow movement ('Langsam,
ausdruckvoll') includes moments of rare
repose, blessed with cantabile lines
dispatched with real tendresse by the
players. This is truly interior music
that threatens to run and run, so it
comes as something of a surprise that
the third movement's timing is only
6'20. A strummed accompaniment to a
soloist's melody comes as a nice textural
touch before the emotionally wide-ranging
finale comes into play.
Interesting that the
Second Quartet dates from what the booklet
notes call a 'lean period' - apart from
some songs, there is not much else from
the 1920s - as the music seems almost
shamelessly fertile. Those who know
this work from the CPO performance (999
526-2) may still want to hear this fresh,
enthusiastic and well recorded account,
particularly in the light of the coupling,
Schoenberg's Fourth Quartet.
Of course with this
Schoenberg work the competitive field
really opens out. For the complete Schoenberg
Quartets, perhaps one should consider
the New Vienna Quartet (with Evelyn
Lear) on a Philips twofer, 464 046-2;
but in the case of the Fourth one really
should also hear the Arditti Quartet
(on Auvidis, possibly currently deleted),
the Kolisch (1936), and the LaSalle
Quartets.
The complexity of the
musical surface of the first movement
is astonishing, yet it never overwhelms
the Wihan Quartet. This was Schoenberg's
first twelve-note work of his American
period and it is a masterpiece … and
there's a word I don't use lightly.
The compositional assurance is astonishing,
as are the demands made upon the performers.
Luckily the Wihan Quartet has all of
the chameleon qualities required for
this music. The players seem to relish
the rapid exchanges of the Comodo
second movement just as much as they
do the deeper interpretational challenges
of the Largo, where control is
all. But it is the palpable angst of
the finale that impresses the most.
The recording is a
fine one - no venue is listed, although
it is nice to know we are in the safe
hands of Producer Jaroslav Rybar. Apparently
the Wihan is the Quartet in Residence
at the University of Cranfield - a UK
university, made up entirely of postgrads,
located near Bedford. Worth a trip,
on this evidence.
Colin Clarke
Arco
Diva Catalogue
Wihan String Quartet (Leos Cepicky, Jan Schulmeister,
violins; Jirí Zigmund, viola; Ales Kasprík,
cello). 
for
details
