March 28, 2013

  • Review: Chamber Music of Barber & Hanson

     

    American Anthem: Music of Barber & Hanson
    Ying Quartet
    Sonus Luminus
    Total Time:  74:02
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    The Ying Quartet is currently the quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music.  The quartet has been performing for about two decades and is known for their commitment to American music as well as their support for new music.  One of their earliest residencies in Iowa, was a significant factor in discussions about funding for the NEA back in the 1990s as well.  Their performances have plenty of critical acclaim and this new release allows you to both see them in concert with an accompanying BluRay disc (in surround sound!), or to just enjoy the music on its own.  The former would certainly serve as an instructive teaching tool.

    The present release explores chamber music by two of American music’s great Neo-Romanticists of the 20th Century: Samuel Barber and Howard Hanson.  There is also a string version of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia as a bit of an encore as well.  Both Barber and Hanson composed music that expanded upon Romanticism and was a distinctly different thread from the oft-discussed atonal and chance music developments of the period.  And of course, they were not Copland either.  Fortunately, their music has managed to maintain a toehold over the past few decades as with significant releases of Hanson’s symphonies and at least some key Barber pieces often programmed on concerts. 

    In Barber’s case, his fame tends to rest on the orchestral version of the slow movement of this disc’s opening work, the String Quartet, Op. 11.  Barber’s quartet was composed mostly in the summer of 1936 while the composer was staying with Gian Carlo Menotti in a mountain cabin.  Originally hoping for a performance by the Curtis Quartet, the piece was eventually premiered by the Pro Arte Quartet in Rome, 1936.  The opening movement is a powerful, yet still often lyrical, start that includes a beautiful chorale like second subject.  But it is the slow movement, which Barber also orchestrated as the Adagio for Strings, which is the heart of this work.  Those unfamiliar with the music in this setting will be surprised at its innate intimacy and has a sense of deep personal vulnerability and eloquence.  Barber recognized the level of composition which he achieved with this movement and that may also have caused some of the doubt about what must come after such a deep emotional piece.  The “final” solution was that the third movement would recap the material of the opening providing an arch-like structure to the piece.

    The present release becomes more significant though as the Ying Quartet has been given access to Barber’s original third movement which was performed with the quartet in the first few years of its creation.  The Curtis Quartet originally played the work with this movement but overtime audiences and friends began to suggest a different solution was needed and so the published form of the work did not include this music.  In hearing it, one immediately understands why it may be worth reconsidering this decision as the piece is twice as long as the existent third movement and provides a better balance to the whole work.  The Ying Quartet has programmed the quartet using this movement after being encouraged to do so by Orlando Cole, the cellist in the Curtis Quartet.  At any rate, listeners now have a chance to program the piece either way and decide for themselves.

    There are two other Barber works included as well.  The first of these is his “first” work composed as s young student of 14 at the Curtis Institute in 1928.  The piece features three brief movements.  The first becomes a joyful optimistic little allegro.  The second has a bit more lyricism and takes some interesting harmonic directions.  The final movement is a dance in which the ¾ time A section shifts to 4/4 in its recapitulation demonstrating an interesting play with rhythm.  It is certainly hard to imagine this as a student work and it will be a welcome surprise for Barber’s fans.  The second work is a bit more familiar.  Dover Beach, Op. 3 is one of the composer’s earliest vocal settings.  It is based on an 1867 poem by Matthew Arnold.  Barber likely set this with strings because of his growing friendship with members of the Curtis Quartet.  RCA recorded the composer as baritone soloist with the Curtis group.  This is again intimate chamber music writing that treats each voice as equals in intricate writing.  The chromaticism and dissonance in this work is also an interesting look at Barber experimenting with richer harmonic writing.  The performance here featuring Randall Scarlata is quite stunning.

    Howard Hanson’s impact as an educator at the Eastman School of Music reaches far and wide into American music.  The works here come from early in Hanson’s career.  The String Quartet, Op. 23 was composed in 1923 under a commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation.  The listener will discern in this work characteristics that would later cement themselves into Hanson’s personal style, namely a connection with Scandinavian composer such as Nielsen, Grieg, and Sibelius belying the composer’s roots as a Swedish Lutheran.  The quartet is cast in one movement featuring a variety of thematic manipulation of primary material and an almost orchestral approach to the writing lending the piece a lush quality.  The central section manages to feel a bit “modern” with its more angular melodic style and insistent rhythms.  The warm harmonic writing does manage to provide that Romantic thread.  Still, this is a gorgeous chamber piece deserving more attention.  The second Hanson piece, the Concerto Da Camera (1916-17) originally premiered in a version for piano and organ and later he would record a string orchestra version suggesting again a sense of a larger sound expectation even in a chamber setting.  The present version for piano and string quartet appeared in 1922 and is the one performed here featuring Adam Neiman as the piano soloist.  It has a bit of salon-like parlor music feel with some wonderful Romantic gestures.

    The Ying Quartet is simply marvelous in this recording providing a real richness and depth of tone.  The performances are wonderfully shaped and there is a sense that these musicians really love this music deeply and are committed to its effects on the audience.  Carefully thought out tempos and a great overall balance within the quartet create some amazing results all wonderfully captured by the Sono Luminus engineers.  This is a must have for American music fans hands down.