Everyone knows Fritz but only specialists will have heard of his
talented cellist brother Hugo (1884-1929), who was about a decade
younger and a prominent chamber player in Vienna; cellist in the
Fitzner Quartet and in the Wiener Konzerthaus Quartet. After the
First War he journeyed to America where he played in various orchestras,
including the Philadelphia, and he also made a handful of 78s
with Fritz and pianist Charlton Keith. Later on Hugo made cello
discs with Fritz accompanying on piano in Berlin. This then is
the background to this genial release which revivifies some of
the arrangements that, one assumes, Fritz crafted. We also have
some arrangements of c.1948 by Erik William Gustav Leidzen, of
whom more in a moment. And to add serious ballast we also have
a performance of Kreisler’s scintillating String Quartet of 1919,
still a rarity on disc.
The disc actually
starts with the five Leidzen arrangements. This Swedish-born
musician was a Salvation Army band stalwart who wrote for
the band as well as for the Goldman Band. They’re engaging
salon confections arranged for string quartet. The foursome
employs quite a bit of rubato in Liebesleid and there
are some shimmering tremolandi to entice the auditor. Hu and
Kavafian swapped roles for the final two pieces to allow the
latter the chance to take the primarius role for Schön
Rosmarin and Liebesfreud.
A trio of pieces
follow, arranged for piano trio – Fritz, Hugo and a pianist
in other words. Nina is especially warmly voiced in
this reading, with successive legato prominence for cello
and violin, in that order. A couple of pieces follow for viola,
cello and piano and the Neubauer-Thomas-McDermott team prove
worthy ambassadors. Syncopation is Kreisler’s Ragtime-light
offering. And bravo to the Hu-Thomas-McDermott trio when they
take over for giving us Londonderry Air at a Kreisler
tempo and not the dirge it’s subsequently become. Those unaccustomed
to it can therefore also hear the March Miniature Viennoise
in Kreisler’s trio and in Leidzen’s quartet arrangements.
Caprice Viennoise is here heard both in the Leidzen
and in Robert Biederman arrangements.
The Quartet is
the meaty offering. It was premiered by the London Symphony
Quartet in May 1921, we are always told (as here) but actually
it was – I’m pretty sure – the London String Quartet who took
the honours and who first made an (abridged) recording shortly
afterwards. When Kreisler recorded it in 1935 it was with
the rump of the London Quartet – second violinist Thomas Petre
(who had premiered it) and William Primrose. The cellist then
was the best player in London at the time, Lauri Kennedy,
of the Chamber Music Players. This disc performance is warmly
textured with a strong rhythmic underpinning. It has a generous
lightness of touch, playful in the Scherzo but promoting veiled
hues in the movement’s B section. The Romance is succulent,
the finale richly and evocatively played; the admixture of
Debussy and Korngold is inescapable perhaps, but this is a
work teeming with ideas.
To finish we have
a couple of viola and piano encores – Neubauer’s own adaptation
of Aucassin Et Nicolette is especially fetching.
These are not
new performances. They were recorded at the First Baptist
Church and the Bartlesville Community Centre, Oklahoma, as
part of the OK Mozart Festival, in June 2001. The acoustic
is a bit swimmy and some of the pieces end a bit abruptly
– presumably to edit out applause. Coughs and the occasional
duff note have also been allowed to stand which adds to the
liveliness of the encounter. The booklet has some nice photographs
including one of the Abbey Road recording of the Quartet by
Kreisler and confreres that I don’t recall having seen before
– they all look a bit glum, so maybe that’s why.
Jonathan
Woolf
Nai-Yuan Hu
and Ani Kavafian (violins): Paul Neubauer (viola): Ronald Thomas
(cello); Ani Kavafian (violins): Ronald Thomas (cello):Anne-Marie
McDermott (piano); Paul Neubauer (viola): Anne-Marie McDermott (piano)
