Friday evening I had string quartets at my house. One of the violinists had requested the Ravel quartet; the other Death and the Maiden. That made for a challenging and long evening, even though we started at 7pm rather than my more usual 7:30pm start time, and even though I didn't try to sneak in one of the few remaining quartets in my Haydn Project. :-) But a very satisfying evening of music!
One of the side effects of playing lots of chamber music for strings is that, if you're not careful, you can easily end up living on a diet of German music, leavened only by music strongly influenced by the German style, like Dvorak. Don't get me wrong: I love German composers. But every now and then, it's great to hear something completely different, and Ravel is a perfect example of that.
The Ravel Quartet in F is, in form, completely in the standard string quartet mode: sonata form first movement, scherzo second movement, slow third movement, fast, driving finale. But from a purely aural point of view, it sounds absolutely nothing like a Haydn quartet. It's filled with impressionistic effects: tremolos, fast arpeggios, shimmering, unstable harmonies, extremes of register, complex, shifting rhythms; in short, every color you could imagine from the string quartet palette. Just listen and you can't help but notice the departure from the German model. Of course, all those effects make it very difficult to play. I can't say we played it well, but it was, shall we say, recognizable. And fun!
One comment here: we played from the International Edition, and it was just horrible. As far as I can tell, just a reprint of the original French edition, with misprints galore. For example, two eighth notes just missing from the viola part, third movement four measures before the end. (Checking with the score, an A before the B-flat quarter note, and an A-flat after). And some of those complex, shifting rhythms could be much more clearly notated. Can anyone recommend a better edition of this quartet? Or I'll have to do one myself in my copious free time. :-)
After the Ravel, Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet. Oh, what an amazing piece! I don't know what I can say about it that hasn't already been said. Just go listen to it. (And thanks again to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for their amazing collection of free chamber music recordings from their concerts!)
Well, maybe I can say two things. First, I can only echo Schumann's remark about another piece fo Schubert's music : "himmlische Länge" (heavenly length). But after 9pm on a Friday after a long work week, perhaps more accent on the "Länge" than the "himmlische". :-)
Second, I just learned from reading the Wikipedia article about this piece that it's very likely that Schubert himself played the viola part at the premiere. Yet another reason why violas are the center of the universe. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment