String Quartet In E Minor Op. 83 / String Quartet In D Minor (Voces Intimae) Op. 56 by Sir Edward Elgar; Jean Sibelius; The Claremont Quartet Nonesuch (H-71140) Publication date 1966

 With all their differences, the two works pre-

sented on this record have one thing in common: each

is among the most important chamber-music composi-

tions of a composer not primarily. associated with

chamber music. It is always interesting to examine

how a composer tackles a form far removed from his

usual sphere of activity, and especially to see how a

symphonist approaches the distinctive problems of the

string quartet medium.

With Sibelius, expectation is particularly stimulat-

ing — for one can predict fairly safely that, if a com-

poser tried to write a string quartet in the manner

developed by Sibelius in his symphonies, the result

would be a tedious failure. Sibelius’s symphonic method

is a tight-fisted, essentially harmonic one. He builds

his themes over, and often out of, long pedal points

which lend imposing weight to his music, and his

thematic combinations are always vertical in character

rather than linear. This works very well in orchestral

music, because for one thing the resourceful use of

instrumental color can avoid monotony, and for another

it is a fair procedure to subordinate certain sections

of the orchestra to others.

But string quartets can hardly be written in this

way. To begin with, the homogeneity of the string

quartet timbre calls for variety in other facets to set

it off: twenty minutes of accompanied melody played

by a string quartet would be pretty well intolerable.

Textures that change and musical lines that pass from

one instrument to another are essential. Partly, no

doubt, because of this consideration, the string quartet

has grown up as a medium which offers four players

the opportunity to express themselves on roughly

equal terms. It is a medium of discussion, of interplay,

not of egotistical domination by a prima donna first

violin. And a composer ignores this fact at his peril,

because if he fails to provide all four players with in-

teresting parts his quartet will never be played.

Between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six Sibe-

lius wrote several pieces of chamber music, including

two piano trios, two piano quartets, a piano quintet,

and two string quartets. But (unless one counts pieces

for violin and piano and for cello and piano) the D-

minor String Quartet subtitled Voces intimae (Inti-

mate Voices) is his only published chamber work and

the only one written in his maturity — it dates from

1909, when he was forty-four. In it he solves the

textural problems outlined above in an ingenious and

radical way. He lightens the texture by largely dis-

pensing with his customary pedal-point basses, and

Engineering & Musical Supervision MARC J. AUBORT produ

he equalizes interest among the four parts by the

simple expedient of writing long stretches in octave

unison for two or more instruments. This procedure

has the advantage of giving the work a spacious re-

sonance of sound that is highly individual, since this

kind of texture has been oddly neglected by other

composers of quartets. In the central movements,

Sibelius also uses short thematic fragments that can

be tossed effectively from part to part, but the outer

movements lean more to long flowing lines and ostinato

figurations.

In form, the work has affinities with the suite: its

five movements include two scherzos, and much of the

music is dance-like in rhythm. Less portentous in ex-

pression than most of the symphonies, it is neverthe-

less suggestive of some passages in them: the central

slow movement strongly prefigures the slow movement

of the Fourth Symphony (completed two years later) ;

the moto perpetuo of the second movement recalls the

Finale of the Fifth; and the first theme of the Quartet

looks forward to the mood and technique of the Sixth.

Elgar was less specifically a symphonist than

Sibelius: apart from the two Symphonies, his greatest

works include the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius,

the Violin and Cello Concertos, the symphonic study

Falstaff, and the Enigma Variations. In spite of this,

his way of musical thought is essentially symphonic.

But his usual style is easier than Sibelius’s to reconcile

with the demands of the string quartet, because it gives

a much more central place to polyphony. As one would

expect, therefore, the E-minor String Quartet is a more

typical work than the Sibelius Quartet. It was com-

posed in 1918, in a sudden flush of interest in the

chamber media. Apart from a very early Wind Quintet

and String Quartet, and a few violin and piano pieces

dating from 1885 to 1893, Elgar had written no chamber

music. But now, in his sixty-second year, he composed

a Violin Sonata, a Piano Quintet, and this String

Quartet.

The Quartet is almost like a gentler, less opulent

Elgar symphony. Though there are only three move-

ments, the flow of musical thought has the same

spaciousness that characterizes his bigger works. Par-

ticularly in the sonata-form first movement, the supple

continuity of the rhythmic flow tends to blur divisions

between the thematic groups: lyrical unity is more

fundamental than dramatic differentiation. Also charac-

teristic is the tonal subtlety which brings in the second

subject in regions far removed from the conventional

relative major, dominant, and tonic. The slow — only

fairly slow — middle movement is a spacious medita-

tion centered om a theme of great beauty and fascinat-

ing rhythmic flexibility, which begins with a delicately

balanced six-measure phrase and constantly grows and

develops from this premise. Typically Elgarian is the

martial vigor of the last movement — a distant cousin

of the Pomp and Circumstance marches, but more

intellectual in bent. .

RERNARD JACOBSON

THE CLAREMONT QUARTET, which made its New York

debut in 1954, is known internationally through its many

successful tours of the United States, Canada, the European

continent, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Latin

America (the last two under U.S. State Department sponsor-

ship).

The Quartet came into being as a result of long-standing

personal and musical friendships. Its teaching and lecturing

activities have included residencies at Pennsylvania State Uni-

versity, the University of Delaware, and Goucher College. In

1965, the Claremont were appointed artists-in-residence at the

new North Carolina School of the Arts at Winston-Salem, and

at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.

A set of Amati instruments has been made available to

The Claremont Quartet by the Clark Collection of the Corcoran

Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., and it is on these instru-

ments that the Quartet performs in this recording — its debut

on NONESUCH Records.

Ravishing, homogeneous tone . . . performance extraordinary.

The New York Times

The Claremont Quartet cannot be surpassed.

Washington Post

Ensemble playing of unearthly beauty.

Manchester Guardian

Brilliant artists, playing with innermost feeling.

§ Vienna Kurier

Perfect mastery of the art of string quartet playing.

‘Cithaine Nestea hecn cee

Not likely to be equalled, let alone excelled, by another

quartet. New Zealand Auckland Star