Schubert String Quartet d.810 "Death and the Maiden". String Quartet No.9 d.173. Chiaroscuro Quartet. BIS 24/96 2018. Qobuz Studio Stream.
Once upon a time, I would listen to Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet obsessively; it is an obsessive piece, rhythmically, melodically and above all, emotionally; so the listener, in the intensity of her involvement, tends to be the mirror of the creation.
I cannot remember if I ever had a favourite recording back in the day; most of my experiences of the work were off-air, taped or live. The Lunchtime Concert from St Johns Smith Square… and so, so often - I tried never to miss it. I thought I could never go back to it.
But now I have a brand new favourite, HIPPs without compromise, just released by the remarkable Chiaroscuros. The more impressive in its intensity perhaps, for following their necessarily cooler, so precise, yet never emotionally pallid Haydn releases.
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What struck me first was the clean, clear immediacy of the recorded sound; all four instruments, there before you without much perceivable artifice or adjustment. You connect instantly to the players and Schubert's music. Perfectly placed, neither overbearingly close, nor ostentatiously spacious.
The Chiaroscuros’ dynamic range is wide, even extreme, as is their purity: strictly senza vibrato, tonal andphrasal. It feels: musically faithful, the “objective” servant of the score, but never lacks intensity at all. So there’s no relaxing into the second subject; it keeps moving, keeps moving on, don’t look back… the coda to the 1st movement is dark and regretful, but is clearly understood as “show don’t tell”.
Some may find this somewhat austere, unyielding, perhaps craving evidence of greater personal, in-the-moment performer involvement - but I think the reading is so powerful on its own loftier terms, you have to take it on those terms - or not.
So into the Variations on the song itself, clarity and transparency are the key (and Ibragimova’s vibrato-less tone remarkably intense and clear). The galloping variation may seem less frightened or threatening, less fight-or-flight than some; but across the grinding harshness of textures laid bare, there is considerable momentum and energy. We’re not dead yet!
The contrast between the last two, elysium glimpsed, then the plunge into stricken agony, is intense; but again created by sheer precision, purity and intensity of tone.
The scherzo is clipped-phrase, staccato-severe, yet with something of the hurdy-gurdy about its trio…the merest hint of pathos.
A very quick, truly presto tarantella finale, rubato barely-perceptible but expressively telling; and stunning articulation-at-speed….every note there without a hint of approximation; the attack scarcely even yields to the second group. We may be driven to despair, but never quite lose control, even through an almost percussive coda.
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If I have reservations, it may be that the range of colour lacks some light and shade; the tonal or textural character always on-the-surface, totally explicit in its note-to-note articulation, where one might sometimes wish for softer, more mysterious evocations. But that would be asking for a different performance…
Still, I can’t understate the remarkable clarity and tangibility of the recorded sound; truly exceptional - perfect mirror of the performance itself.
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(The 1815 G Minor quartet isn’t just a makeweight, having at least a hint of the intensity of those darkly-shaded, often fragmentary, Piano Sonatas of 1817, e.g. d537…so, well worth getting to know…)
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