Wolf, H: Italian Serenade in G major

Founded in Vienna in 1933, the Hugo Wolf Quartett today regularly perform s in the world’s most renowned concert hall venues and chamber music festivals. This disc shows them performing the Complete Works for String Quartet.

The Brodsky Quartet here turns to the sunshine, bright colours, and deep-set passions of the South, performing Latin-inspired music for string quartet by composers who all possessed a strong connection to the ‘South’, whether it was the Mediterranean or South America.

Paganini’s Capricci Nos 6 and 24 need no introduction. They are among the most published and reviewed virtuoso pieces ever composed, and have been frequently arranged over the last two hundred years, with each new reading allowing us to discover Paganini’s art afresh. This version has been arranged by the violinist Paul Cassidy, a long-standing member of the Brodsky Quartet.

We have the chance to hear chamber works by two further Italian composers, who would always be known primarily for their massive achievements in opera. In fact, the sad melodies of Puccini’s Crisantemi would later be used in the tragic fourth act of the opera Manon Lescaut. The Quartetto in E minor was the only string quartet Verdi ever wrote, and he himself insisted on presenting it as a mere trifle, stating that it was composed ‘in idle moments’ before the premiere of Aida. This Quartet divided opinion. Whereas some reviewers recognised the technical difficulties of the work, others thought Verdi’s Italian temperament inappropriate to instrumental music.

The inspiration to La oración del torero (The Toreador’s Prayer) came to Turina during a Spanish bullfight, during which he watched as a bullfighter received the prayerful Sacrament of Holy Unction, while all around a feverish excitement over the forthcoming fight was overtaking the crowd. The work itself displays elements of French impressionism, combined with strong evocations from the Spanish bullfighting arena.

Four, for Tango, written in 1988 for the Kronos Quartet, is a prime example of Piazzolla’s own style of ‘Nuevo Tango’; this new form of tango became popular around the world, and was generated from combining Argentine folklore with so-called ‘art music’. Also on this disc is Hugo Wolf’s ‘Italian’ Serenade, a work equally full of captivating rhythms, harmonic warmth, and dancing themes.

Hugo Wolf is best known today for his extraordinary and highly popular Lieder; his small body of compositions for orchestra and chamber ensemble are, sadly, performed and recorded far less. However, the works for string quartet recorded on this disc reveal the seriousness with which Wolf approached this small-scale genre.

Wolf’s interest in the string quartet grew out of his immersion in chamber music as a child – his father organised musical evenings where family members would play the popular French and Italian repertoire together. The String Quartet in D minor was composed in 1878, when Wolf was 18 years old and living in Beethoven’s old apartment. The legendary composer’s influence can be heard in Wolf’s work, along with a hint of Wagner – Lohengrin in particular.

The Intermezzo in E flat followed in 1886, a short piece that nevertheless displays Wolf’s consummate skill in manipulating and developing a single theme to a state of considerable complexity. However, the Italienische Serenade is probably the best known of the works featured here, an extended rondo movement that conveys a curious mixture of passion and humour. Quartetto Prometeo’s fine performances demonstrate a perceptive understanding of Wolf’s musical genius, illuminating both the despair and sense of resolve that defined his character. An exciting new recording, this disc will be particularly welcomed by fans of the quartets of Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert and Brahms.

One of the most gorgeous recorded versions of Schubert’s String Quintet is now available once more, after its relatively short-lived release as a full-price CD. The cellist was Christopher van Kampen, with whom the Fitzwilliams performed often. Appearing on CD for the first time is the Quartet’s recording of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, with Alan Hacker (who sweeps away any of the work’s ‘autumnal’ associations, emphasizing, rather, its Zigeuner elements) – one of Britain’s finest performers described by Alan George in his introductory note as ‘totally inspirational and revelatory in everything he did and touched, based on an obsessively enquiring and probing mind, allied to a flair in performance which, at its best, could have listeners eating out of his hands’. Wolf’s little Italian Serenade too makes a first appearance on CD.

Alan George writes introductory notes and in addition to his note on the Schubert String Quintet and Wolf’s Italian Serenade, and Alan Hacker’s on the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, is a fascinating essay by Wilfrid Mellers entitled ‘Schubert’s Dream of Eden’. As well there is a biography of the Fitzwilliam Quartet and a note on their Decca recording team.

In 1960, the Stuttgart-born conductor Karl Münchinger (1915-1990), made a Decca recording of Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue that assured the piece its immortality in years to come. Münchinger recorded extensively for Decca with his Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra). Moderate-size forces, rhythmic sprightliness and judicious ornamentation were the hallmarks of his recordings of 17th and 18th-century repertoire, and their general airiness also informs his readings of the Serenades on this anthology. The Dvorak, Suk and Wolf recordings date from the 1970s, whereas the Grieg, which he only recorded once, and has been on many “reissue request” lists, dates from 1956. This generous CD, released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death and nearly 80 minutes long, is comprised entirely of first international CD releases.

This is the second release on Capriccio by the Signum Quartett. After the success of their first recording, a disc of String Quartets by Ludwig Thuille (C5049), they return with Quartet Movements which have all found their way into concert schedules worldwide.

Featuring Quartet Movements by Anton von Webern, Hugo Wolf, Giocomo Puccini and Charles Ives amongst others, the Signum Quartett give dynamic and fresh performances.