I think it’s fair to
say that Berwald is still best known
for his excellent symphonies, which
now boast a number of different versions.
The chamber music has made slower headway
into the repertoire, though Hyperion,
as usual, has been right at the forefront
of recorded interest in the composer.
This excellent pair of discs were, I
gather, quite a success first time round
and now, at the twofer Dyad price, are
set to be all over again
The works included
here span nearly forty years of Berwald’s
life and even liner-note writer and
Scandinavian expert Robert Layton admits
they are not all on the same level of
inspiration. That said, even the weaker
pieces are never less than enjoyable.
It certainly helps that the playing
throughout is so warmly sympathetic
and captured in such beautifully balanced
sound.
The earliest work is
the Piano Quartet in E flat,
written when the composer was only 23
but already with a number of chamber
pieces under his belt. It’s laid out
in a conventional three-movement structure
and is indebted to Hummel and Spohr
among others. It’s not wildly original
but boasts some attractive melodic invention,
particularly the short central adagio
and sparkling finale, with its interesting
modulations and glittering, Weber-like
piano writing.
The Grand Septet
is much more mature, modelled on Beethoven’s
ever-popular Septet and delightfully
inventive. Layton tells us that formally
it anticipated the Sinfonie singulière
by incorporating the scherzo into the
slow movement, thus having a weighty
central movement that doubles as both.
The invention is definitely more inspired,
with touches that remind one of Schubert;
something I thought more than once throughout
this set.
The pianist Hilda Thegerström
seems to have been the inspiration behind
a number of his chamber works with piano,
and his Piano Trio in F minor
is an interesting work. It is ostensibly
in four movements but these are played
without a break, with a seamless flow
of memorable ideas. Some tunes recall
Mendelssohn in their grace and sparkle,
and there is real rhythmic vitality
here with some original harmonic touches
– witness the piano flurries in track
6, 0:38 on.
The second disc includes
the later Piano Trio in C major,
which is also an attractive work, though
listening for a few weeks has given
me more of a soft spot for that earlier
F minor piece. The best work on this
companion disc seems to me to be the
Piano Quintet of 1853, another
Thegerström inspiration. She played
it in private but the first public performance
did not take place for another forty
years. It’s a bold, muscular piece that
again incorporates a scherzo into another
movement, this time the opening allegro,
and is brimful of melodic and harmonic
invention, something the players exploit
to the full.
The Duo for
piano and violin is another neglected
piece, a shame as it also has much to
commend it, including an attractive
folk-like central andante. The high
jinx of the finale show pianist Susan
Tomes to be at her best, virtuosic but
never showy or empty.
Indeed, this could
go for the whole team, who work together
to produce a blend that is pure, natural
and always at the service of the music.
This is delightful, urbane music that
any lover of 19th Century
chamber music will revel in.
Tony Haywood
The Gaudier Ensemble: Marieke Blankestijn
(violin); Fiona McApra (violin); Iris Juda (viola);
Christoph Marks (cello); Stephen Williams (double
bass); Richard Hosford (clarinet); Robin O’Neill
(bassoon); Jonathan Williams (horn) 
for
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