One Bit Audio

EAN: 4038912419265, CGC 011, 04.12.2015
http://www.cugate.com
http://www.konzerthaus-kammerorchester.de/

A quartet for string orchestra! This will sound strange to you. I already know all objections that will be raised: the destruction of intimacy, of individuality. But this would be mistaken. What I intend is nothing but an ideal representation of the quartet.“ (Gustav Mahler, 1899) The perceived contradictions appear at first to be barely reconcilable. On one side is the string quartet, regarded unarguably as the noblest and most demanding musical genre since the time of the First Viennese School. The demands of aesthetics and compositional technique are so interconnected that as Carl Maria von Weber noted as early as 1818, “In the art of music, having only four voices is nakedness”. On the other side are those works for string orchestra from the 19th century, which are associated with a rich, more aesthetically pleasing, even lyrically melancholy tone – for example, the widely popular serenades for strings by Antonín Dvorak, Peter Tchaikovsky, Edvard Grieg, Robert Volkmann and Edward Elgar. After the 1940s, the repertoire was expanded by works such as Béla Bartók‘s Divertimento (1940) and Witold Lutoslawski‘s Funeral Music (1954/58). Correspondingly, the circles of enthusiasts also differ: Whereas the string quartet is mostly preferred by those connoisseurs who themselves will bring a work to performance in the domestic circle or bourgeois salon, the serenade, which in terms of melody and expression is easily comprehensible for the most part, is directed at a broader public which looks for musical diversion. As a result, the boundaries between string quartet and string orchestra seem to be strictly drawn – if the occasional misunderstanding of performance practice and particular aspects, or simply a delightful new idea, had not led again and again to new sonic explorations. In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K. 525 for example, the lines are played by one or more instrumentalists, the early and also late string quartets of Franz Schubert reach out almost into the symphonic sphere, and Arnold Schoenberg‘s Verklärte Nacht Op. 4 was initially written as a string sextet before the composer later presented an additional version for string orchestra. In this context, the arrangement of Franz Schubert‘s String Quartet in D minor, D. 810 begun by Gustav Mahler in 1894 (although only the variation movement was completed) does not appear so absurd at all. A little later in Vienna in 1898, he came up with a plan to transcribe all of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s string quartets for string orchestra. This was abandoned following the harsh rejection with which the Vienna audience greeted his version of the Quartet in F minor Op. 95. His intention had been, however, to overcome the historical dilemma of the string quartet, namely, how to introduce this highly-differentiated, intimate genre into the large concert hall. He himself wrote in an essay for the Viennese publication Die Waage: “Chamber music is innately written for the room. In fact it is only truly enjoyed by the participants. The four gentlemen who sit at their music stands are also the audience that the music addresses. When chamber music is transferred to the concert hall, this intimacy is lost. But much more than that is lost. In the large room, the four voices get lost; they do not speak to the listeners with the power the composer intended. I give them this power by reinforcing the voices. I release the expansion which lies dormant in the voices, and make the sounds sing.” In fact, the loss of the intimacy inherent in chamber music and its clarity of structure are countered by a greater dynamic range which is better suited to the spatial and acoustic characteristics of large concert halls, and reveals quite different dimensions of the respective composition. Unlike Schubert and Beethoven who had to put up with sundry arrangements of their published works, Shostakovich was himself able to authorize the 1960 „symphonic“ version of his String Quartet No. 8, Op 110 by Rudolf Barshai – and even encouraged the musician and conductor of the Borodin Quartet to arrange other works by him. Michael Kube

UPC 4038912419272, CGC 012, 27.11.2015
http://www.cugate.com
http://www.konzerthaus-kammerorchester.de/

Bartok’s Divertimento for String Orchestra was written in two weeks in Switzerland in the summer of 1939 – just before the outbreak of World War II – as a commissioned work for the Basel Chamber Orchestra and its legendary conductor Paul Sacher, who conducted the premiere on 11.06.1940. The title, which promises pleasant light music, probably misleads the listener because the symphony-like three movement work is marked – especially in the slow movement, the center of the work – by a deep earnestness, as if the composer was aware oft he global disaster to come and wanted to avert it through his music. In the virtuoso string writing various solos are repeatedly interwoven which at time give this string symphony the character of a concerto grosso. The piano version of the Romanian Folk Dances originated in 1915. Two years later, Bartok created an orchestral version of these dances which became more popular then the original piano version. The cycle consists of six original Romanian folk tunes which last about six minutes, every one of them used to their utmost in terms of contrast and tension. The music of Astor Piazzolla is inseperably associated with the most famous Argentine dance, the tango. The musician started his career as a bandoneon player in various ensembles in Buenos Aires. But it was in Paris, where he began his studies with Nadia Boulanger, that Piazzolla developed his personal and unmistakable style. Back in Argentine he began to find his expression in „Tango Nuevo“, which in terms of form and compositional technique combines elements of the classical European music tradition, Argentinian folklore and hints of jazz.
„Las Cuatro Estaciones Portofeñas“, loosely translated „The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires“ were composed for Piazzolla’s own quintet and later on arranged by the great cellist in tango history José Bragato. In his arrangement he conveys the characteristic elements of „Tango Nuevo“ such as harmonic sequencing, complex counterpoint polyphony plus unexpected time and tempo changes in the style of Vivaldi’s famous „Le quattro stagioni“ in the form of a virtuoso Baroque concerto. But the title also refers to the city of Buenos Aires whose inhabitants call themselves „Porteños“. Thus, the four pieces are to be understood as musical snapshots capturing the Argentine capital at different times of the year