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Schoenberg: Verkärte Nacht, Op. 4
Schubert: String Quintet in C major, D. 956
Testament SBT-1031
Prokofiev: String Quartet # 2 in F, Op. 92
Hindemith: String Quartet # 3 in C, Op. 22
Walton: String Quartet in a minor
Testament SBT-1052
Ravel: Introduction and Allegro
Debussy: Dances Sacrée et Profane
Turina: La Oracion de Torero, Op.34
Villa-Lobos: String Quartet # 6
Creston: String Quartet, Op. 8
Testament SBT-1053
The very idea of a "Hollywood String
Quartet" sounds like some sort of joke. What could the glitzy, evanescent artifice of
Tinseltown possibly have to do with a string quartet, that staid, intellectual and most
serious of all musical genres?
Quite a lot, actually.
Although enshrined in stately concert
halls nowadays, chamber music began in far more casual circumstances. In the days before
records and radio, musical friends would gather at home to read through the latest music,
whether directly written for small ensemble or in an arrangement from a symphony or opera.
Thus, chamber music was not a type of professional engagement, but rather was a relaxed
and private pleasure, a respite from the pressures and hardships of the world.
And so it was here. The members of the
Hollywood Quartet were all studio musicians who sought relief from the tedium of their
daily grinds. First violinist Felix Slatkin was head of the 20th Century Fox orchestra;
his wife Eleanor Aller was principal cellist at Warners; and their friends Paul Robyn and
Paul Shure were principal violist at Warners and assistant concertmaster at Fox. As
Robyn's wife Frances tactfully recalled: "Working at the studios was frankly not too
gratifying. They began to play quartets because they missed the good music."
At first, the quartet entertained
themselves and occasional civic groups. But then in 1948 they came to the attention of
Hollywood-based Capitol records, which was launching a classical division. Over the next
decade they gained national and then international renown through pop work (including
Frank Sinatra's Close to You album), tours and recordings.
And what fabulous recordings they were! If
these musicians knew one thing from their careers, it was how to sound good in a recording
studio. Using only a single microphone, their balances are wonderfully natural, arising
from the artistic interaction of musicians rather than from the artifice of control-room
manipulation. Like the best records of the pre-tape era, you hear a genuine performance
whose organic continuity is a world apart from the edited fabrications of today. And
consistent with the origins of the genre, this is chamber music that suggests a relaxed
gathering of caring friends, animated with the joy of discovery, rather than a paid
assignment of wizened professionals.
Another essential historical function of
chamber music before the communications revolution was to disseminate new music. The
Hollywood Quartet followed in that proud tradition as well, embracing and recording modern
music by the likes of Villa-Lobos, Piston, Walton and Creston. But they did so with utmost
responsibility, extensively consulting with the composers to ensure a full understanding
of the works. As a result, most of their performances boast an authenticity that enhances
their value even beyond their considerable musical excellence. Before recording Verklärte
Nacht, they played it for the aging and difficult Arnold Schoenberg, who was so
pleased that he wrote liner notes for the LP (reproduced in the CD booklet, but, alas, not
very insightful). And no other ensemble can boast a tribute from William Walton that:
"I hope no one ever records my Quartet again, because you captured so exactly what I
wanted" or from Paul Creston that: "I am delighted that they were chosen to
permanently preserve my composition."
As Tully Potter observes in his excellent
CD liner notes, the Hollywood homed in on modern works which would speak most directly to
their listeners. Thus, although contemporary, all of the quartets are fundamentally sweet
and post-romantic, and avoid the dissonant spikiness of other works of the era. If you
tend to approach modern classical music with trepidation, you have little to fear on these
CDs. The Hollywood digs into the newer pieces with phenomenal virtuosity and precision.
But perhaps it is the older works, which have hardly lacked fine recordings in the past,
that hold the most pleasant surprises.
Despite the far greater importance of his
later 12-tone work, the early Verklärte Nacht remains Schoenberg's most popular
piece. It was inspired by a Richard Dehmel poem considered scandalous in its time: on a
cold moonlit night in a park, a stranger is drawn to an unloved but pregnant wife. The
music is deeply atmospheric, both bittersweet and gorgeous, pushing Wagnerian tonality to
the utmost limits. Often heard in a subsequent arrangement for full string orchestra (of
which the most vital performance remains Mitropolous's on Columbia LP MS-6006), the
original 1898 sextet version emphasizes the vigorous shift of mood, but, as played here by
the Hollywood (and approved by the composer) embedded in an continuous flow of emotion.
The Quintet, like all of Schubert's
work, brims with lilting, irrepressible melody. The Hollywood gives a beautifully refined
and polished performance, achieving a fine middle ground between the focussed drive of
Heifetz, Piatagorsky, Primrose, Rekert and Rejto (on RCA CD 7964-2 RG) and the lush
deliberation of Rostropovich and the Melos Quartet (on DGG CD 415 373-2).
The Debussy and Ravel pieces rank among
the most lovely chamber music ever written. Here, the Hollywood opt for a rather
straight-forward approach between Slavic passion and Gallic grace. While the diffident
Debussy responds well to such restraint, the Ravel never really ignites and is the sole
disappointment among all the works presented here.
Curiously, although EMI has done quite
well by Beecham and others in the old Capitol roster which it now controls, the present
releases are on the independent Testament label, created specifically to market product
licensed from EMI which the parent doesn't want to issue itself. Given some of the far
less distinguished stuff in their catalog, EMI's disinterest in the Hollywood Quartet's
glorious discography seems hard to believe. But with Testament's lovely sound (marred only
by a hint of phase distortion in the Schubert and an overall brightness easily tamed by
tone controls), it is perhaps better that these gems are presented with the tender loving
care of a committed independent than by the bean-counters of the EMI conglomerate.
Copyright 1995 by Peter
Gutmann
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