February 17, 2017

  • One Degree of Separation: Marteau & Zemlinsky

     

    Chamber Music of Henri Marteau & Alexander Zemlinsky
    Mark Lieb, clarinet. The Phoenix Ensemble
    Navona Records 6076
    Total Time:  74:20
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The Phoenix Ensemble is a mixed instrumental chamber group allowing them to explore unique repertoire and introduce this to new audiences.  Formed in 1991, the NYC-based ensemble has a varied repertoire focusing though on music of the 20th Century and today.  The present release shows off both the string and wind players of the group in three distinct works.

    Johannes Brahms is a seemingly unlikely link between these pieces but his presence connects to both the composers represented here with ties that move us even further back to the early 19th Century.  Henri Marteau (1874-1934) was one of the great late-century violin virtuosi, but was also a well-respected teacher first in Geneva, and later at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin.  During World War I, he was forced to leave Germany and landed in Sweden where he would remain for the remainder of his life.  Such was musical Europe that Marteau’s mother took piano lessons from Clara Schumann.  The young Henri heard the great Ernesto Camillo Sorvi, a student of Paganini, perform and even received a toy violin from the maestro.  This would have a lasting impact on the young man and at 13 he performed the Bruch Violin Concerto conducted by Hans Richter.  It was at this concert where Brahms first heard Marteau.  Later, Marteau would compose a clarinet quintet for Richard Muhlfield after Brahms himself introduced the two men.  Muhlfield being the clarinetist for whom Brahms’ own quintet was composed.  Marteau’s work was completed in 1908 but the dedicatee died before getting a chance to play it.

    That work is at the center of this new release.  First though is a delightful Serenade, Op. 20 from 1922.   The four-movement work is set for a typical wind sextet but with an added bass clarinet lending a rather unique and dark, warm quality to the low end of the ensemble. The work opens with a nice little “Entrata” followed by a moving slow movement, a playful “Scherzino” and a final theme with variations movement.  The harmonic language tends to be moving expectedly into slightly more open qualities though still based in standard harmony without an overly-romantic Wagnerian influence.  Thus the piece has more of a Gallic flavor reminiscent of Milhaud and falls parallel to Les Six.  Certainly this is a work that wind players out to seek out.  It would make a great companion to a Dvorak serenade performance.

    The Clarinet Quintet, Op. 13 is also cast in four movements.  The clarinet writing is stunning and the way the different string lines combine with the soloist makes for some wonderful color.  The first movement certainly has some touching lyricism in its opening “Andante” and a sense of wit as it moves forward.  A secondary theme has the romantic emotional quality that connects more to Brahms and perhaps Dvorak.  The gorgeous lyrical line of the third movement has its own interesting little melodic twists that move us further away from the 19th Century.  The central harmonic ideas certainly head away in more troubled moments before we return to the warmer familiar expectations.  The finale makes or a very exciting conclusion with great interaction between the soloists and the quartet.  One can hear some slight Les Six qualities that become more pronounced in the later serenade, though certainly the work is revealing to us Marteau’s own unique style and musical voice.  This dramatic work is striking and would make a very fitting companion to the Brahms—certainly it is worth more visibility.  One might say this as a whole as while Marteau’s legacy no doubt lives on through his students and their students, there are some 50 pieces that might bear some dusting off.

    Alexander Zemlinsky’s (1871-1942) music seems to come and go in popularity with his Lyric Symphony perhaps being his most known work.  Mostly his post-romantic, or ultraromantic orchestral music tends to help provide a transition along with the work of Mahler.  Both of their work becoming more noticed beginning back in the 1960s and 1970s.  Today we tend to hear his music as helping connect Austrian music from Brahms’ romanticism into Schoenberg’s innovations.  Brahms himself mentored the younger composer being impressed with his Symphony in d and was instrumental in getting the Trio in d, Op. 3 (1896) published.  The piece is composed for clarinet, cello and piano and has a standard three-movement fast-slow-fast pattern.  A good Beaux Arts Trio recording was a standard choice for some time in the catalog, but this one gives it a run for the money.  One might say that the piece itself is illustrative of the shifts from the grand romanticism of Brahms and grand Mahlerian gestures to setting its sights on the future through each movement.

    The performances here are simply wonderful.  The gorgeous lyrical lines are handled with care and the ensemble perfection is clear in the technically moving sections of these works.  One would be hard pressed to find such engaging and committed performances of even more familiar works, but here the ensemble members have really provided music lovers with a wonderful entry into the chamber music of both these composers.