Rubinstein String Quartets vol.1 - Op.47/1 & 3

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Well, swimming against the current here, I have found much of his chamber music very appealing. The piano trios in particular are quite attractive and the later ones really deserve concert performance...

Friends and I have played through all ten of the quartets. While sightreading, we recorded soundbites of all three of the Op.47 which you can hear on the links below should you choose. Keep in mind, we were sightreading...
http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/rubinstein-string-quartet-4.htm
http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/rubinstein-string-quartet-5.htm
http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/rubinstein-string-quartet-6.htm

Here is our opinion about these quartets. Op.47 No.1--the first three movements are pretty good but the finale is a bit of a let down with the main theme sounding somewhat trite. There is a magnificent viola solo in the third movement, and the whole movement is rather nicely done.
Op.47 No.2---the first movement has a salonstucke aura to it, the themes to the second movement are rather threadbare. The third movement a set of variations which are uneven, some quite good others not. The finale is the most engaging of the four movements. All in all it is the weakest of the three which is probably why it was not selected for recording.
Op.47 No.3 the first movement is a solid, the second quite appealing as is the third movement an Adagio. The hand of Mendelssohn can be heard in the finale, which is decent.

Given the fact that when we make soundbites, we do not rehearse but do it with onlyone play through, since no one wants to spend the time, we do not make soundbites of works which are difficult to sightread. And Rubinstein's Quartet Nos.7-10 we found to be a bit too complex to make recordings just by sightreading.

To present a contrary view of the quartets to that of the reviewers in Cobbett's, who were not quartet players and were probably just looking at the scores, Wilhelm Altmann, a violinist and long time quartet player felt they were worthwhile.

It would be good if the Opp.90 and 106 quartets, as well as the Op.59 String Quintet received recordings but I am not holding my breath. And as for the likelihood of a complete series of all ten coming out, I think it is more likely that the Corona Virus will disappear by year's end never to return. In my experience, Vol.1 of a set comes out, then maybe Vol.II and III but rare it is indeed that a complete set appears. Look how long, for example, it took for the Raff quartets to all be released. But, of course, hope springs eternal...

[Alan Howe]

Nevertheless, your opinion of the Op.47 set is not exactly enthusiastic. Rubinstein is such an uneven composer - even within the same work, let alone from work to work.

I agee though: the chances of a complete cycle of the string quartets from cpo before I lose my hair are vanishingly small...

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Well, you have hit the nail on the head with regard to his works being uneven. He just wrote too much, too fast and did not come back very often to revise. A bit sad because he was a very great man to be sure...what touring virtuoso pianist of his caliber and ability founded a conservatory, wrote so much in virtually every genre some of which is first rate and served as a conductor....answer---none,

And you are correct, the Op.47 are not exactly masterpieces. It is a pity that some of the movements are really fine and then there are a let downs. Of course, he is hardly the only composer whose works are uneven, although in his case, perhaps more often than not because he was such a prolific composer...

I do think the exception is the piano trios and the sonatas for cello and violin. Maybe this was the result of the fact that because he played piano chamber music he had a feel for it that he did not have for pure string music of which he could not take part...hard to say as a couple of his tone poems and symphonies are not at all bad...

[Alan Howe]

a couple of his tone poems and symphonies are not at all bad

Would you care to name them? I'm genuinely interested in your opinion. (And there's also the 4th Piano Concerto, the rather fine Violin Concerto...)

[matesic]

Santo - William Cobbett himself was a very enthusiastic amateur chamber music player who comments from hands-on experience.  Being a wealthy man he was able to attract professionals to play with in his home. He writes "It is impossible to write with enthusiasm about Rubinstein's ten string quartets...a movement or two worth rescuing from oblivion". But I read testimony from one well-known composer and violist that he played very badly!

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Yes, of course, you are right about Cobbett but he only offered a short after thought, damning with faint praise, something he often did. I was thinking more of  Leonid Sabaneyev who wrote the review and whose main complaints seems to be that his quartets do not show that he was aware of Wagner and Brahms, were not Russian sounding enough and broke no new ground.

Altmann, writing in the 1930s, comments that it is unjust that Rubinstein's quartets have been forgotten. He devotes considerable space to each quartet in his Handbook. Op.17 he calls noteworthy. Unlike Sabaneyev, he finds that the Op.47 do have Russian themes. He considered the Op.90 particularly fine, especially No.1. As for Op.106, he had good things to say of both, especially No.1. He felt all of the later quartets had Russian themes in them.

Altmann was German, Sabaneyev Russian, perhaps their ears  heard different things. Rubinstein was fond of a saying "To the Russians, I'm a German. To the Germans, I'm a Russian. To the Jews, I'm a Christian and to the Christians, I'm a Jew.

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Alan, I am not familiar with his piano concerti and it has been years since I pulled out my LPs to listen to his orchestral works but I do recall liking one or two symphonies and a tone poem. Now, if I have the time, I will have to pull out those old LPs and put them on my Bang and Olufson turntable....when I have time. I hate to say it, but it might be at the Greek Calends...

[eschiss1]

the discography of Rubinstein's string quartets, if I remember, also includes a very early acoustic recording of the slow movement of op.17#2 of course predating the Etcetera recording, and about x
contemporary with a singleton Raff quartet extract in the same series- but yes, Rubinstein's string chamber music hasn't fared well. I thought I saw a notice of a recording of his string sextet in D, which could be nice.

[FBerwald]

His Piano Octet is a fine work.

[matesic]

For my own education I knocked out the first movement of the eighth quartet. It's good to play and very competently written without exploiting the possibilities of the medium in any novel way. Chiefly Mendelssohnian of course, but some of the rhythmic patterns reminded me of Tchaikovsky's 3rd quartet, written more than 10 years later! One original touch - towards the end there's a passage clearly representing a storm in which all the instruments play descending chromatic semiquaver scales in parallel. The chief downside for me is its excessive length of 12 minutes. If only he'd written a really good tune that you could look forward to hearing reprised. Sabaneyev's comments often strike me as perceptive (e.g. "now and again, though not very often, he finds a place for the Russian type of melos"), although he says nothing about this particular quartet.

[Alan Howe]

Well, now that the new cpo CD is here, I have to say that it's highly enjoyable. Rubinstein does tend to sectional writing which has one wondering how it all hangs together, but at 27:50 and 32:06 these quartets never outstay their welcome and there's a quite remarkable variety of textures and material on display. Perhaps the music occasionally seems to burst the bounds of quartet-writing in its quasi-orchestral fullness, but it's never less than interesting and is often genuinely thrilling.

Exceptions aside, who thinks that Rubinstein's at his best in chamber music? My hand's up!

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Well, my hand is up also. At the top of my list as I commented earlier in this thread, I would put his piano trios, especially Nos 4 and 5 which were recorded by the Edlian Piano Trio on a Metronome CD some years back. Also good, in my opinion are the cello and piano sonatas. Though not as strong, I so like the quartets, they generally fun to play although at times a bit tricky rhythmically.

I look forward to getting the CD.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the mini-review, Alan. I await the digital release with anticipation. FWIW, from what I have heard so far, I think Rubinstein's quality is patchy in most genres he wrote in, although it's consistently of a higher level in the Piano Concertos, Piano Sonatas (and some other large-scale piano works) and Piano Trios. It's no coincidence he was as a piano virtuoso second only to Liszt. Still, I'm always happy to have my mind changed.

[eschiss1]

I hope they'll also record the string quintet at some point (and the sextet too). The only string quartet of his I've heard is a movement from his last string quartet - so far. Glad to see a complete cycle begun, though. I hear reasonably good things about the piano quartets (in C, and another iirc that's an arrangement of another work) and the piano quintets with strings and with winds, but those have been more often recorded, mostly.

[eschiss1]

on 10 Jan 2021 they are performing op.17/3 in concert in Leipzig, btw.