Emilie Mayer: String Quartets vol. 1

[Tapiola]

https://www.clicmusique.com/emilie-mayer-quatuors-cordes-vol-constanze-quartet-p-109987.html?osCsid=9tk8s617e4000i8u58q51t1rt5

Another new release by CPO, the Constanze Quartett tackling this repertoire.

[eschiss1]

Since I think they did -very- well by Felix Draeseke's excellent quartets, this is intriguing. Thanks!

[Alan Howe]

Excerpts here:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/emilie-mayer-streichquartette-vol-1/hnum/11166695

I'm glad to report that these are gorgeous-sounding recordings, without a trace of HIP-inspired pedantry.

[eschiss1]

I would have been surprised, I don't think the Constanze Quartet is a HIP group (and one of the things I most noticed about that recording of Draeseke op.35 is the wonderful -flexibility-/responsiveness of line...) Glad to hear!

[Double-A]

I have finally heard all performances on this disk.  They are marvelous. 

These three quartets are  probably the best three of Mayer's (I would put the best pieces on the first disk too).  I have looked at all her quartets or made transcripts, except for the ones in G-Major and in B-flat Major (they are not on IMSLP and I can't find them in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek either).
The quartet in d-minor is not much more than a "Vorübung", a bit clumsy even in places.  The D-major, only exists arranged for piano 4 hand*, is more in the style of the piano concerto, nice in its way, reminding me of Haydn, but lacking the intensity of her more mature works. 

The F-major quartet has a very ambitious variation movement.  It begins with a theme andante cantabile (two repeated parts,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,) followed by four fairly  conventional variations, the fourth in minor.  Variation 5 is in 3/8 which makes it 25% shorter if you keep the tempo.  Variation 6 is in 12/8, still featuring the same number of measures which makes it four times longer than the theme, essentially almost a movement by itself. The final variation follows in 8/16 and is not much more than a coda.  This long variation would have to have the most weight of all of them and Mayer didn't manage to give it that weight, it seems rather a bit thin as the theme is dragged out so long.  The other movements are better.

The quartet in g-minor has already been recorded but I would bet the Constanze people will do it better.

* The D-Major quartet can easily be "back-arranged" for string quartet; Mayer just had the right hand of the first player play "first violin", the left hand "second", the other player would similarly play "viola" and "cello".  She also put some passages an octave higher (she seems to have liked the very high notes on the piano) but it was easy to spot those passages.  I had an "edition" nearly ready for IMSLP when somebody beat me to it. Of course it is not certain that this piece will be part of this set of recordings.

[eschiss1]

I hope the arrangement of the D major quartet has pizz. and other markings or that they are unnecessary...

[Double-A]

The original quartets by Mayer feature very little if any pizzicato. I don't think this is a major issue for this composer.  I am finding quite a bit of pizzicato in the cello sonatas (apparently the last group of works of hers), very little in the violin sonatas.  I'd agree with the judgement that a cello pizz. is more attractive than a violin pizz. in case that this was Mayer's calculation.

[eschiss1]

She uses the same bowing- not just arco, but no other bowing techniques at all- for the majority of the time of her string quartets? Why write them as string quartets at all, I wonder. If you're not going to make use of any of the potential of your medium, it puts a big why on top of it all.

[Double-A]

String quartets in general rarely prescribe bowing techniques (such as "ricochet" or "sautillé" or "sul ponticello"), at least before the 20th century.  They use staccato dots and other more general markings that are also in use for piano music.

Some composers used more of those markings than others.  Quite often articulations suggest themselves from the context if they are not written in.  It is part of the plauyer's job to make up their minds about articulations if the composer did not prescribe every detail.

[eschiss1]

To use no more articulations than could be found in a reduction, though, seems a bit little. It is true that "am steg"/Italian equivalent and similar appears almost never between Beethoven's last quartets and Webern's op.5 (afaik)*, but I wonder how many composers were sparing of pizzicati throughout an entire body of string-only ensemble works... (for unless one also needs chords, one could get better textural differentiation with wind quartets.)

*(And, ok, mutes, which appear in Schoenberg's string sextet of 1899 (which also has sections "Am Griffbrett"- on the fingerboard) and presumably before then as well. And harmonics appear in string chamber music as a general thing...)

[Maury]

I liked the g minor quartet of Mayer. I'm going to investigate her music further. Thanks for the thread. As a former high school violinist  i tend to be a bit demanding of string music but this was a good listen. I particularly liked the rhythmic drive.

I'm not sure I understand the conversation above about bowing techniques. Generally string quartet music in the 19th C was not filled with sound effects. I don't see notably sophisticated string techniques until Debussy and Mahler but that was at the very end of the 19th C.