Two Roads to Exile

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Occasionally a new CD seems to slip by without much notice given. RCA released (I think in October) the third release in the ARC Ensemble (= Artists of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto) series of 'music in exile'. Previous releases were 'Right through the Bone' (some especially alluring and delightful works of Rontgen including the wonderful String Sextet of 1931 and the Piano Quintet of 1927) and 'On The Threshold of Hope' (devoted to Weinberg and including a stunning Piano Quintet). All these CDs have imaginative titles, and in my view have been of tremendous quality.

They've now come up real trumps with a third release, 'Two Roads to Exile', containing the Adolf Busch String Sextet and Walter Braunfels String Quintet. I can't recall much publicity given to the release nor have I seen mention of it in the usual places. (Even the notorious DH hasn't yet condemned the CD!)

In my view, it is a release of great significance. Most will be familiar with the outline's of Busch's life and his legendary status as a violinist (if not go straight to the Toccata website!). Few will be familiar with his compositions. The Sextet was premiered in Bonn in 1928, much revised in 1933, and has never been published. Jury is still out on the work (I've listened to it but twice), but first impressions are that it is a gorgeous work, full of lyricism and especially well crafted. The booklet notes "It is an ebullient declaration of a master musician revelling in the creation of instrumental challenges, ingenious string sonorities and virtuosic counterpart" - and I can't do better than that!

However the Braunfels String Quintet seems to me an utter masterwork, and this is its first recording. How to describe it?

A 'big' work of a half hour or so duration. The first movement has Brahms as a distant ancestor, and its sound world is (approximately) that of Pfitzner (but certainly with none of his frequent rigidness, clumsy congestion and wandering off all over the place and then getting lost), early Schoenberg (think the 1st Quartet or Verklarte Nacht) and perhaps Zemlinsky. It is a big, bold and magnificent movement, full of opulence, lyricism, richness and perfect balance between all five instruments.

Second movement, an Adagio...and gosh! The music here is suffused with sadness and melancholy. But not that of a typically Romantic composer recalling with sweet sadness thoughts of lost youth, innocence, past loves, faded memories or hopes or whatever. Rather it is that of an eminent composer who has been stripped of his position and reputation in the musical world, one whose works were silenced, a half-Jew and practising Catholic who, rather than seek a new life outside Germany, chose to go into a precarious 'self-exile' near Lake Constance. It was here, in his sixties, he wrote 'Jeanne d'Arc' (blast it, my copy has yet to arrive!) and after that the three string quartets and then the present quintet. The melancholy of this second movement is that of a nihilistic and forlorn resignation. What would be unfolding about Braunfels would be a realisation of the atrocities manifest in Germany, the utter collapse of morality, the complete breakdown of the world in which he had lived and gained success, and perhaps precisely nothing for which to hope. Whatever the eventual outcome of the war (the Quintet was written in 1945) did he perhaps sense the end of traditional musical language and expression and the emergence of the noisy avant-garde after the war? His age, and the conditions around him as things slowly emerged after the war, meant there was no prospect of his music being rehabilitated or regaining his former positions and reputation. Do I read too much into this music? The music left me with a gulp.

And for those who care to read on, the third movement? A fast moving and agitated Scherzo. The 1st violin keeps undermining the music with a scurrying, insistent, nervous and frightening little figure. We are almost in the world of Shostakovich with those ominous knocks on the door in the still darkness of the night.

The last movement? I found it deeply enigmatic. Early all, a jaunty and brazen almost folk-tune like melody is announced by the 1st violin, and then works its way around the other four instruments. One's foot almost starts tapping. Momentum increases almost to a frenzy. But is this the release from the pain and anguish of the preceding music? Is this the joy that dispels the gloom? Maybe, but I am unable to see it that way. This is energetic music tottering on the brink of despair and madness. Unless the dance continues we shall collapse into nothingness. Is Braunfels quoting or referring to something with this 'folk-tune' like figure? It is somehow very familiar, but I cannot pin it down. If others can cast light on it that might be fascinating and help understand the musical 'semantics' of the movement.

Others may respond to the Quintet quite differently. Some may complain I am fancying all sorts of things into the music. But not having read a single word on this Quintet I feel out there quite alone and trying to make sense of it. I shall learn from others!

In the meantime I know what, if I had the resources, I'd buy all you lot for Christmas! The CD seems to me a magnificent release. The two works are deeply serious and in my view supreme pieces of chamber music. And the performances quite astonishing.

Pray forgive my clumsy account of the music. I have ears, but am not a musicologist!

Peter

[eschiss1]

Re the earlier recording with works by Weinberg by the way, have you heard the earlier commercial recording of the quintet (with the Borodin Quartet and Weinberg, reissued on CD once upon a time by Olympia) and how do they compare? (There was also a BBC broadcast from the Cork Music Festival, if memory serves, a few years back?.)

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hello Eric.  Re. the Weinberg Piano Quintet. I once had the older Olympia disc to which you refer. Picked it up for just a few pennies from a junk shop (hardly where Weinberg belongs!). I can't remember the performance, for the disc was damaged and rather than go on hearing sharp clicks and burbles I threw it away.

However can't offer praises enough to the ARC Ensemble recording on RCA - the 'Threshold of Hope' CD. A real stunner of a disc.

I acquired another recording of the Quintet 2-3 years ago. This is by Golda Vainberg-Tatz and the Vilnius String Quartet - a Delos CD. I rate it highly - and I wonder if the pianist is a distant relation of Weinberg? Probably not!

Peter

[Ilja]

I've still got to hear the first work by Braunfels to disappoint me. This order is going out today. Thanks, Peter!