HIGH FIDELITY ARTIA ALP-188
RIAA
SHOSTAKOVICH Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 5/7 (1940)
THE JANACEK QUARTET EVA BERNATHOVA, pianist
String Quartet No. 4, Op. 83 (1949)
“By more or less general consent,” writes Gerald Abraham, “Dmitri Shostakovich
. . . is acknowledged the most significant composer yet produced by the Soviet
Union.” This remarkable and prolific musician — at this writing he has just com-
pleted his Twelfth Symphony — was born in St. Petersburg, now Leningrad, in
1906 into a musical family. His mother, an accomplished pianist, gave the young
Dmitri his first lessons on the instrument. At an early age, he entered the Glasser
School of Music to further his piano studies. There, according to Ivan Martynov,
“not content to play the compositions of others only, (Shostakovich) tried his
hand at music making.”
At the age of thirteen, Shostakovich entered the Conservatory of his native
city, where he studied piano under Leonid Nikolayev and composition under
Maximilian Steinberg. Although he was not as yet known as a composer, the
impression made at a recital he gave at the Conservatory brought forth the following
review from a local journal: “A tremendous impression was created by the concert
given by D. Shostakovich, the young (age 17) composer and pianist. He played
Bach . . . Beethoven (Appassionata), and then his own works; he played with a
confidence and an artistic endeavor of great fluency that reveal in him a musician
who has a profound feeling for and understanding of his art.” Before long, this
gifted pianist would also be proclaimed one of the brightest composing talents
of the time. His reputation as a pianist was permanently secured in 1927 upon
being awarded one of the highest prizes at the first International Chopin Compe-
tition in Warsaw. But he soon abandoned the concert stage. “After finishing the
Conservatory I was confronted with the problem: should I become a pianist or a
composer?” wrote Shostakovich. The impetus to give up the concert stage was
provided by the enormous success of his First Symphony, written as his Conserv-
atory diploma work. This initial major effort by the nineteen-year-old Shostakovich
was given its first performance by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko
in 1926 and brought his name before the Soviet public overnight, while penetrating
to the major musical centers of Europe and the United States before long.
Of the many works which followed the First Symphony, the Piano Quintet
and the Fifth Symphony rank among the most universally admired and frequently
performed. The Quintet was introduced at the Moscow Festival of Soviet Music
on November 23, 1940, with the composer making one of his rare appearances as
soloist, and the Beethoven Quartet. Pravda immediately hailed it as “music created
in the full maturity of power, a work that opens new vistas to the art”. D. Rabinovich,
the composer’s biographer, informs us that the Quintet’s performance came at the
end of a long evening of new quartets by Soviet composers. “The audience was
growing tired,” he writes, “but when the . . . Quartet . . . appeared on stage led by
Shostakovich himself, and the first strains of the Quintet resounded, all workaday
. .. sensations disappeared without leaving a trace. Obviously something important
was happening in the hall, something that was outside the scope of ‘current’ musical
events.” Critics and audience were unanimous in their praise of the Quintet as one
of the outstanding chamber music works to have come out of Soviet Russia, and
without question Shostakovich’s masterpiece in the genre. It should be added that
audience response at the premiere was so enthusiastic that portions of the work
had to be encored. From this sprang the waggish comment, “Shostakovich’s Quintet
is a piece in five movements of which there are seven.” It has become a tradition
in the U.S.S.R. to encore the scherzo and finale.
The first two movements, Prelude and Fugue are played without pause. The
style could be called “Neo-Bach”, but there can be no question that Shostakovich’s
is the dominant personality. The pattern of these movements follows that established
in the opening movements of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, i.e., the tempo is
slow and the mood one of deep contemplation. The effect is one of somber strength
until the middle section of the Prelude when the colors become brighter and a
charming, light-hearted melody emerges. This atmosphere is soon dispelled by
what Rabinovich refers to as “The sudden invasion of a swelling music still more
majestic and emotional” which gradually leads to the end of the Prelude. The
Fugue continues the mood of severity established at the outset of the Prelude.
“This is music that has many different sources,” Rabinovich continues, . . .““Bach’s
name comes to mind not only because of the frequent obvious similarities. It is
in Bach’s music and in the slower movements of some of the later Beethoven
sonatas that we encounter ‘contemplative’ music of such volume that it tries to
embrace the whole world and confront man with everything that is going on in it.”
The whirlwind Scherzo is one of Shostakovich’s most brilliant, astringent
creations. Here we are reminded somewhat of Prokofiev’s macabre jests. The move-
ment has a “motoric” drive and exquisite clarity. This is the movement which will
immediately impress itself upon the listener’s memory, for rarely has the composer
written with greater fire and more masterful clarity. Its placement after the
demanding Prelude and Fugue is a masterstroke of dramatic planning.
The Intermezzo is a broad melodic outpouring, nocturnal rather than somber.
The movement begins with a warm melody played by the first violin over pizzicato
cello. This section grows more rapturous and songful as it progresses, working its
way toward a passionate climax, after which the music dies away gradually and
leads, attacca, into the finale, a Pastorale, which —for most of its duration —
expresses peace and fulfillment. The music is, once more, fairly subdued, but
brighter in color than what has preceded, and toward the end, the composer bursts
briefly into a mischievously humorous mood.
While the Piano Quintet has become a staple of the modern chamber music
repertory, the Fourth String Quartet has yet to become a familiar work. It is one
of the composer’s finest accomplishments in the form and one which deserves a
kinder fate than that which it has been accorded. The Quartet, completed in 1949,
is a passionate statement, more concise and more direct than the Quintet. While
the Quintet begins in the familiar Shostakovich mood of contemplation, the Op. 83
Quartet starts off with a seemingly frivolous theme which quickly loses its cheer-
fulness. There is a feeling of nostalgia about the entire first movement, but the air
is never oppressive.
In the slow movement, Shostakovich settles down, so to speak, to tell us what
is on his mind. Here we find none of the emotional ambiguity of the preceding
Allegretto. The Andantino is flowingly lyrical, with the melody first assigned to
the solo violin playing over a repeated figure in second violin and viola, after
which the cello joins in with a melody of its own. The atmosphere becomes
momentarily intense as the opening theme is repeated, but the section ends even
more gently than it began.
The following Allegretto, which is technically two movements in one virtually
continuous section, opens with a wonderful scherzo for the muted strings. This
portion is filled with an endless variety of color and subtle harmonic play, with
the composer displaying every facet of his skill in writing for the stringed instru-
ments. The mutes are eventually removed to make way for a theme of folklike
exhuberance, first pizzicato, then strummed by violins and cello, over which the
viola sings a tune of distinctly Oriental quality. The final Allegretto becomes
increasingly agitated until the solo violin leads the Quartet to a soft, reflective
conclusion.
—notes by HERBERT GLASS
recorded in Europe a supraphon/ramco production
Other chamber music recordings on ARTIA high fidelity records for your listening
pleasure:
JANACEK String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2. Smetana Quartet
Artia ALP-109
ENESCO Octet for Strings, Op. 7. Artia ALP-119
BEETHOVEN Trio in G, Op. 9; Trio in C Minor, Op. 9, No. 3. Leonid Kogan,
Rudolf Barshai, Mstislav Rostropovich Artia ALP-164
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿