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Haydn Quartet Society Vol. 7  

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Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen is a lengthy free fantasia for twenty-three solo strings. The work is dominated by a haunting theme beginning with four repeated notes, developed by Strauss into a seemingly endless flow of melody. At its climax, the repeated note theme is revealed to be a quotation from the slow movement of the Eroica symphony. The reference to Beethoven's great funeral march makes it clear that Strauss is mourning the destruction of so much of German culture and history in the Second World War. The quotation has the same effect as the Bach reference in the finale of Berg's Violin Concerto, of providing a universal frame for the particular loss the work commemorates. In its thematic and emotional richness Metamorphosen resembles another twentieth century string work that references music from an earlier era, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. Where that piece is celebratory, though, Strauss's work has a much more elegiac and tragic character.

Clemens Krauss's relationship with Richard Strauss is attested by the photograph on the cover of the CD insert. In Krauss's capacity as head of the Berlin State Opera he became closely associated with Strauss's operas, directing several and providing the libretto for Capriccio. The fact that this performance with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra strings dates from only eight or nine years after Strauss' death suggests its authenticity. This recording (like the others on the disc) was sourced from a radio broadcast via a Philips LP disc, and this provenance makes for pretty average sonics, even with Andrew Rose's expert re-mastering. There is heavy surface noise right at the beginning, although this wears off pretty quickly, and some of the strings sound rather metallic, particularly at forte and above. The acoustic is generally boxy, with a rather boomy bass. None of this matters, however, once the performance gets under way. The Bamberg strings play this music with tremendous conviction and urgency, and Krauss keeps expert control of the pulse, managing the transitions very adroitly.
 
Metamorphosen has received some high quality recordings over the years. I got to know this work in John Barbirolli's version with the New Philharmonia, coupled with the Mahler Sixth (available as a Great Recording of the Century - see review). A more recent version is with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simone Young (ABC Classics 476 6811). This is a fine performance, coupled with thrilling accounts of the Wagner Wesendonck Lieder and three Strauss lieder with Lisa Gasteen. There is no doubt that this recording makes much more comfortable listening than the earlier one. Nevertheless one would not want to be without the Bamberg performance, which is played as if it really mattered; no doubt in 1953 the enormous destruction wrought by the war was still all too evident.
 
The disc includes Strauss's arrangement of waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier, and his seldom heard Divertimento, based on harpsichord pieces by François Couperin, also played by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Krauss. The Rosenkavalier arrangement opens in bravura fashion, attacked in enthusiastic style by the Bamberg orchestra. The woodwind parts are nicely forward in the following section, and Krauss adroitly varies the pacing until the slightly feverish gaiety of the finale. The upper strings sound a bit constrained occasionally, and there is a trace of distortion on some of the upper wind parts, but the recording is much more comfortable than in Metamorphosen.
 
The Divertimento, Op. 86, is quite a lengthy work, running to more than half an hour. Strauss' arrangements of François Couperin's harpsichord pieces make no pretence at historical authenticity, being rather a kind of faux-Rococo fantasy with occasional excursions via Hollywood. Those who enjoy Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne or Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, however, will have no problem with this work. After beginning with a rather heavy French overture, Strauss' arrangements have a lightness of touch which preserves the liveliness and wit of the originals, in spirit if not in sonority. In Les Fauvetts Plaintives and the final pairing of Les Brimborions - La Badine, the Baroque harmonies are spiced up with some chromatic Straussian touches. The Bamberg Orchestra plays this work with expertise and affection. But Metamorphosen is a hard act to follow, and I am surprised that the works were not presented in the reverse order - although that is easily achieved with the program feature of one's CD player. Perhaps Pristine wanted to finish with the best recording, and Rosenkavalier and the Serenade are certainly much easier to listen to, with a rather wetter-sounding acoustic than Metamorphosen.
 
The performances on this disc have real authority and total commitment, and more than make up for the rather variable sound quality. 

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Deceptively deep. A bagatelle means a trifle. In music, it describes a short, lightweight piece. Beethoven wrote his first two opus numbers of bagatelles mostly as standalones. The last five bagatelles of op. 119 were written for a piano pedagogy project under another's editorship and then published with some other fugitive pieces. You might have thought such things beneath Beethoven. Indeed, the publisher Peters wrote to the composer to tell him just that about several items of op. 119. Indeed, he thought that no one would believe Beethoven had written them. However, this reflects a high-minded attitude toward art that few artists can afford. Charles Ives, after all, had made beaucoup bucks as the senior partner in the largest insurance firm in America. He could afford to publish himself (and did). Most professional composers are happy to pick up the occasional car commercial. Beethoven couldn't really ignore the large amateur market.

That said, light or not, the bagatelles are still Beethoven and at least worth a listen. Obviously, the length of a piece does not guarantee quality. I'd rather listen to a Bartók piano piece for children than to a Liszt oratorio, but catering to my prejudices, I probably compare po'-boys to pralines.

The Bagatelles, op. 33, most closely fit the definition of the genre, but even here Beethoven pitches quite a few curves. In the very first, he throws in an irregular minor episode that works against the largely duple phrasing. In the second, the main theme begins somewhere in the measure, off the beat, while the episodes proceed evenly. In the third, we're treated to a sudden change of key in the second subphrase, from F to G and then back to F just as abruptly.

Op. 119 does show a split between the first six numbers and the last five, despite, again, Beethoven's indulgence of caprice. In the first, he begins in the middle of things with music more suited to an "answering" phrase than an initial statement. The contrast foretells the lyricism of Brahms, and the piece ends up in the air, on what at first sounds like a dominant and then miraculously "melts" into another key, all on a sustained chord. The second number has an odd asymmetrical shape. What sounds like a contrast is actually the end. We don't get to hear the opening material again, and the proportions between the two sections are odd, the longer part by far the first. The last five numbers reflect more of late Beethoven -- his revived interest in counterpoint and new piano textures. Their scope -- that is, the musical vision and heft -- belies their length. You seem to have taken a substantial journey, similar to what you might get in a sonata movement, in a very short space of time. The weirdest number is the shortest, number 10, madly syncopated. I think of someone tumbling down a hill.

Beethoven described his Bagatelles, op. 126, to the publisher Schott as "likely the best I have written." They fully justify his opinion of them. Some trifles by lesser lights need an interpreter to add something for them to "come off." These need an interpreter penetrating enough to reveal the secrets they keep. Beethoven probably offered the score to Schott because the Peters comment on parts of op. 119 wounded him. This last set represents fully the late-Beethoven world. Unlike the others, he probably meant them to be played in order as a whole, for he wrote in the manuscript "Cycle of Miniatures." Furthermore, beginning with the second bagatelle, the key centers descend by a third, from one to the next: g, E-flat, b, G, E-flat. Hence, you see planning and forethought put into transitions. One hears echoes of the late sonatas, particularly the "Hammerklavier," as well as Beethoven's fascination with extreme register highs and lows, "casual" counterpoint," and flirting daringly with musical breakdown or stasis, which we find both in the finale to the Ninth and in the Missa Solemnis. You can find all these things in the fifth and sixth bagatelles. The end to the sixth (and to the set) calls to mind the presto at the end of the Ninth.

In my earlier days, I searched for easy things to play in a vain attempt to ramp up my piano technique to dismal. I've actually played some of the bagatelles, after a fashion. So I am absolutely overawed by Schnabel's readings. He has the gift of "naturalness" -- hardly ever natural in a musician -- the ability to appear simultaneously straightforward and incredibly wise. Op. 33/3 is beautifully delicate and capricious. Op. 119/4 has a very simple surface, yet Schnabel teases out its heart. The final number of op. 126 alternates between the beautifully lyric and the zany. Above all, he communicates Beethoven's urge toward exploration even of small spaces. William Blake once urged us to "see a world in a grain of sand." Here, Beethoven does as well.

Again, I praise Pristine's transfers. There's a bit of crackle here and there, but you'd have to be a stinging grampus to complain. What gets me is how well they capture the quality of both the piano sound and the subtle color shifts in Schnabel's playing.

Definitely a disc to savor.

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